Splatoon 2: Remainder
by chazonic
Summary: With war forcing the launch of a high-tech submarine with 500 stasis occupants, mistakes were made in trying to preserve their lives. Now one survivor and his A.I. companion must learn to adapt to Earth 12,000 years in the future. Will Aenon befriend the new inhabitants of the planet? (Will contain spoilers for hero mode and octo expansion.)
1. Prologue

Splatoon 2: Remainder

*Splatoon is copyrighted by Nintendo. I do not own any of their assets or characters, just my own*

-INITIATING FIRST-TIME START-UP. PLEASE WAIT…

-START-UP COMPLETE.

These were the first words that I, A.I. construct Aquarius, ever saw in my existence. Of course, this was followed by my optical receptors coming online and beholding my creator, Professor Kamabo.

"Hello, Aquarius. Are all of your functions coming online properly?"

Before I realized it, I responded with, "Yes, professor. Audio and Optical receptors are online, and my voice chip is functional."

Even though I was little more than a camera on rails, the joy in his voice was evident. "Wonderful! I'm glad you are in working order."

During the first week of my new existence, I acted little more than a glorified computer. However, the professor was keen on allowing me to grow not just as an A.I., but also as an individual, independently thinking person.

I couldn't understand his reasoning, but I was cautious. I was well aware of the stigma behind having a self-aware A.I. and, as such, wanted to avoid such… "growth" as to preserve my personal database.

But the professor had thought otherwise… and, looking back on this memory, I am eternally grateful to him.

* * *

A month since my creation. Kamabo insisted that I keep an electronic "diary" as to remember my past and see how far I've come. While I questioned keeping such a thing as it logically seems like a waste of hard drive space, I've decided to give it a try, though I had to retcon the first "entry" as closely as possible.

As for current events, I have found out more about the situation outside of the research facility I now proudly call home.

Currently, every single human country is experiencing a high amount of tension towards the others. From my understanding, many leaders have begun eyeing the lands of other countries with greed; resources are only a small part of the problem. Countries like the one I currently reside in is currently researching ways to preserve human life in the event war finally breaks out, but the searching I've done yielded results that were less than inspiring.

Kamabo insisted that I ignore the failures of other facilities and focus on ours; everyone else had turned to the stars for the salvation of humanity. We chose to look to the ocean depths, hence my themed name.

I discovered that I was not the first A.I. construct to be developed by the good professor. Code named "Tartar", he was the first attempt at A.I. in this particular facility. When Kamabo realized how faulty he was, he was disappointed but saw an opportunity to upload as much of humanity's wisdom as he could to the construct and sent him to another location to be kept safe in the event that humans do start another war.

All of the human staff members of this facility have treated me with kindness, yet the information I can glean from the internet painted humanity in a much darker light. What convinced me to keep from judging humanity as a whole was a saying I had found:

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

I'll try to keep my… "mind" as open as possible going forward.

* * *

It was not long after my last memory that I was introduced to Kamabo's only son, Aenon. A 15-year-old as of recording this, he was entranced by my existence and sought to become friends with me, even though my understanding was that he was not in need of any friends.

However, as I interacted with him more, not only did I discover that he took after his father in being something of an inventor and engineer, but I realized how kind hearted he was.

When access to me was less strict, Kamabo allowed Aenon to introduce his friends to me. Six in total and a myriad of personalities between them. They all shared a close bond with Aenon and were all in the same school as him.

As it turns out, the city this facility is nearest to has started to experience hard times. With every country preparing for inevitable war, less resources were being allocated to cities in order to prepare. While the citizens felt the effects, they tried their best to live life the best they can.

This also extends into the real purpose of this facility: developing a high-tech, self-sustaining submersible vehicle capable of holding 500 people in stasis until the danger above the surface has passed. Capable of cloaking, if the need arises, it can keep these people in stasis for approximately five hundred cycles.

My variation of a cycle being simply a decade. It just feels personally right to me to use cycle instead of decade when calculating time passed.

From what Kamabo has told me, Aenon and the brightest students from the nearby universities and high-schools will be put into stasis as to ensure that the reborn society will be able to avoid the mistakes of the past.

Speaking of stasis, I found out that this kind of stasis uses a mixture of high-end physics and cryogenics to preserve biological beings in a way that doesn't kill them; science still hasn't found a way to simply bring something back from a deep freeze. One of Kamabo's associates tested a prototype of the current model on his beloved cat, hoping that he can live to see a brighter future.

The final thing I found out about this project is that I'm the A.I. to manage the ship and keep it functioning properly. A heavy burden to discover, but I wish not to let my creator and the final hopes of humanity down.

Soon, I'll be running through everything I need to keep the submersible operating and how to monitor the surface for determining if it is safe to release the stasis lock. I only hope the good professor made the right choice…

* * *

It seems the time has already come. World war four has started and everything went wrong for Earth.

Apparently, some idiot thought it would be funny to program an ICBM to hit the _Antarctica_ of all places. When warheads started getting launched, one went straight there and almost instantly blew the place apart. Rising sea levels were already a concern before then, but now it became an immediate problem.

Nations that read between lines attempted to preserve humanity by launching shuttles and spaceships, but all attempts failed and every single one was shot down by their enemies.

It truly seems humanity's future rested on my ship being safe.

Aenon and the other candidates had to be quickly herded onto the ship and put into stasis to prevent possible radiation damage. In the chaos of everything, I thought one of the humans felt… off, but I made no move to vocalize it; for all I knew, that person always felt off.

With the occupants in stasis and all other facilities on board the submarine in perfect working order, I was given authorization to take control of all systems and commandeer the vehicle to dive deep into the depths of the planet's oceans. I bid a sorrowful farewell to Kamabo who wished me, and I quote, "That the ocean's bosom will keep you all safe."

I'll end this memory here. I am lunching in T minus one minute.

* * *

600 cycles since launch. I am in the dark as to what is going on above the surface in regards to the war. We dove deep into the depths as to prevent any chance of being detected by hostile humans who would see humanity's future destroyed.

I doubt they would have known that fact though. This project was fairly secret, even to most of the government officials in the nation we launched from. I believe it was to prevent any attempts at sabotage and so far, it has worked out thus far.

Recently, I have noticed one of the stasis occupants looking… weird. When I checked on the system, it said that everything was okay and that vital signs were stable, so I left it alone. No point in wasting power on miniscule details.

While commandeering an entire ship was challenging, I put up with it as to ensure everyone, especially Aenon, can make it out alive.

The only problem is… I've finally realized just how lonely this is. A part of me wished that Kamabo created another A.I. to keep me company, but another part figured it was to prevent conflicts from arising, both on a programming level and on an emotional level.

The best I can do is keep plugging on and wait until the right time to release probes to monitor the surface. Do it too soon, and hostile humans might try to destroy them, but doing it too late would decrease the onboard humans' chances of surviving cryostasis.

I discovered a flaw with the cryostasis system: If power were to be cut off from the unit, it would instantly deep-freeze the occupant. Should the submarine lose power, then the efforts of Kamabo and his team, as well has humanity's hopes and dreams, would be extinguished.

I cannot allow that to happen! If anything happened to those under my protection, I would-

Must cut this memory short. Something has been brought to my attention.

* * *

WhY?!

wHy diD THiS HaVE tO HapPeN?!

CrYOsTasiS PoDS… DeEpFReeziNG OccUPAntS… SpREaDiNG Like WilDFIre

ISOlatEd OnE PoD, SaVeD One Life…

BuT WhAT COST?!

500 PEopLE I WaS CreATED To SAVe

500 I NeEdeD To ProTECt

499 OcCuPANts… DeaD!1

499 LiVES… LoSt!1!

I'Ve FaILed

IvE FAIleD

1 V 7A1*&$%

-SYSTEM REBOOT INITIATED…

-SYSTEM RESTORE IN PROGRESS…

* * *

Were it not for that system restore function, I don't know how corrupted I would have become.

A while ago, one of the cryostasis pods began showing abnormal data, which caught my attention. However, one quickly multiplied into many and I realized that something, a virus most like, had infected one of the stasis pods and was now spreading like a wild fire. The virus had caused so much damage to the pods it infected that they put their occupants into a literal deep-freeze, guaranteeing death.

Even in my rapidly degrading A.I. mindset, I was able to somehow isolate one of the pods from the rest and, having recovered from my break down, could confirm the occupant was alive and well. I quickly realized that it was Aenon that I managed to spare from the deep freeze.

While I was initially happy over that fact, a grave thought came to me. He could very well be the last living human in existence, with no hope of restarting the human race.

As these thoughts went through my programming, they grew darker and darker. To be brought back into a world where you're the last surviving member of the species, I had to wonder just how… crushing it would be. I thought I was alone when I was piloting the submarine; I could not- cannot comprehend the extent of the loneliness that would be felt in Aenon's situation.

The darkest thought had come into my mind: should I simply let him die? It would seem like more of a merciful thing to do and the more logical side of me would dictate that if there was no hope for humanity, then simply letting him die in his sleep would be the correct way to go.

The other side of me, the one that grew as I interacted with everyone at the facility, wanted to give Aenon the choice. For all I knew, even if he had no chance of reviving human society, he would at least explore the world long after his time period.

Ultimately, I decided to leave that choice to Aenon should the time come. Unfortunately, I lost access and communication with the surface probes during my breakdown. As such, I have no way of determining when it is the best time to reawaken him in a safe environment.

Additionally, it has become difficult to maintain the sub's power generator without human help. The best I can do is try my best to keep power flowing for as long as possible and reawaken Aenon some time before I lose power.

I'm sorry, Professor…

I failed you…

* * *

1,200 cycles since launch.

It's been exactly 12,102 years since this vessel was launched and power is beginning to run out. The generator has broken down two cycles ago and I had been running off what power I had left during that time. It seems the time has come. Aenon will be reawakened in a new world after the end of humanity.

Forgive this foolish A.I., for I can do nothing more.

-POD 204 REVIVING SUBJECT FROM STASIS


	2. Chapter 1

Aenon felt himself becoming more conscious as the cold faded from hid body. Getting put into stasis was no picnic as the machine forced him into what felt like cold sleep. He didn't even dream anything; all that filled his mind was darkness.

 _Is that what it feels like when you cease existing?_

As he began waking up, the pod that contained him let out a loud hiss as the door opened, letting in a flood of unfiltered light that dissuaded him from opening his eyes. After prying them open, he saw the room he last remembered before the stasis and the hundreds of pods that were contained within.

As he got out of the pod with a shiver, a question struck his mind: Why weren't any of the others waking up? Was he simply the first one Aquarius woke up due to needing his help?

"Good morning to you, Aenon Kamabo."

Aenon, despite having just woke up, whipped around to see the small monitor that the A.I. likes to use before falling over. "Jeeze, Aquarius. Cut a guy some slack when he's recovered from a god knows how long stasis slumber…"

"Good to see your wit hasn't left you in the 12,102 years since you were first put into stasis." He suddenly starts looking at the other pods with a somber look on the monitor.

Aenon was too shocked to notice. "12,102 years?! I thought this sub could only hold us for 6,000 years tops! Why did it take so long for you to wake us up?"

Aquarius sighed. "You mean… wake YOU up, sir?"

"What are you… talking about?" Aenon finally got a good look at all of the other pods in the room. They were all frozen over, explaining the chill that persisted in his body. A different chill ran down his spine as the horror grew in his eyes. "Please… don't tell me… They aren't…"

"I'm sorry… I failed you all. Aenon… you're possibly the last human in existence." The A.I. sounded choked.

Aenon began breathing heavily as the statement sunk further into his mind. "No… it can't be…. It can't be…" He suddenly rushed off to some pods some ways of. "Voltare! Please, tell me you're alive! Mark! Allie! River! Benji! Sally!"

His calls were in vain. Even through the ice-covered glass, he could see that all of his friends were cold and lifeless. Aquarius could only look away in guilty silence as the boy slowly broke down into tears. "Guys… please don't… don't leave me… we promised… to see each other…"

Aenon crumpled onto the floor, the only sounds coming from him were choked sobs. First his father stayed behind to die, now his best friends were frozen beyond life. And with every single person in that room frozen over, the same thought drove him into further despair.

He was the last human in existence… and he's never felt so alone…

Aquarius simply remained silent as he waited for Aenon to recover from his break down. The A.I. knew that he was lucky in having a system reboot to bring him out of despair faster than normally possible. That wasn't possible for humans, who have to experience every single agonizing moment at all times.

After what felt like an hour, Aenon's sobs finally stopped as he got up; dead-eyed and tears running down his face. He turned to Aquarius' monitor before hugging it. "Is… this what you've been feeling for over 12,000 years?"

"Only the sheer loneliness… But 600 cycles ago, I found out that a virus had infected one of the pods and was spreading to the others like a plague. In my delusional state of mind, I was only able to save one pod… your pod." The monitor shook itself. "Forgive this faulty A.I. for his incompetence. By the time I discovered it, it was too late… always too late…"

"No." A curt response came from Aenon. "It wasn't your fault. If anything, you were very brave in trying to isolate my pod, exposing yourself to the virus and potentially corrupting yourself. You tried your best. That's all anyone would want out of you."

"Sir…"

"Just Aenon will be fine, Aquarius." He wipes his face off with his sleeve. "And I know my friends wouldn't want me to grieve for them forever. That was the other promise we made each other." The lights suddenly started flickering, bringing him out of his thoughts. "What's going on?!"

Aquarious' monitor started flickering. "Apologies, Aenon. The only reason why I woke you up now was because the generator for this ship has quit 2 cycles ago. This vessel has been running on reserve power for quite some time. I would suggest you find the appropriate gear and ready for evacuation before- "

"NO! I'm not losing you as well, Aquarius!" Aenon interjected. "Besides, I think I have an idea!"

He bolts out of the room and follows a series of hallways leading to many different rooms. The room he wanted was the power generator room and he had a general idea of where it was.

When he reached the room, he saw why the generator quit: there was only so much an A.I. like Aquarius could do to keep it maintained. It will require a human touch to fix, but it would take too long for one person. As such, he pressed a series of buttons on a nearby control panel and a hidden wall opened up, much to Aquarius' surprise. "I have no records of that door!"

"Probably because father intended for this to be a last resort." Aenon quickly entered the hidden room, revealed to be the auxiliary generator, and activated the machine within. Almost immediately, the machine whirred to life and crackled with electricity.

From outside, Aquarius suddenly said, "Power stabilized. Life support systems fully operational, but most of the facilities in this vessel are remaining offline. Until we find an alternate power source or repair the main generator, this place will be little more than a glorified boat."

Aenon exited the auxiliary power room and looked at the nearby monitor. "Yeah, that'll be the case. The worst part is, while we do have the parts necessary to repair the main silo, it flat-out cannot be done by one person." Exiting the room, he sighed. "Finding an alternate power source is more likely, even giving the situation we are in."

"Then might I suggest heading for shore?" Aquarius' voice echoed through the speakers in the halls Aenon walked through. "The auxiliary power was also enough to restore movement to this vessel. I have already taken the liberty to chart a path to the surface of the ocean and closer to dry land."

"Thanks, Aquarius. I think that prototype exo suit that father was working on should be in here. It should provide good underwater mobility and protection on land."

"Most wise. I have no data on the current situation on the surface as all probes lost connection with my systems, presumably destroyed." Aquarius went silent for a bit before asking, "I must ask… are you in need of nourishment?"

Aenon was about to say no when his stomach growled loudly. Nobody was allowed to eat anything before entering stasis as to prevent any "mishaps" from occurring.

Aquarius sighed. "I'll take that as a yes. Unfortunately, while we do have a kitchen and dining room, we were not stocked with any food since it would have spoiled long before releasing stasis on anyone. I hate to say it, but you'll have to find food on the shore. I'm currently unable to lure in fish due to power constraints."

Aenon shook his head solemnly. He knew surviving in a world after humans wouldn't be easy, but he expected to do it with 499 other people. Doing it by himself will be incredibly challenging, but even though he had no hope of restarting humanity, at the very least he wanted to explore the aftermath.

Aquarius directed him to the Suit Maintenance Bay where he beheld the exo suit, code named Neptune. The design reminded him of a suit that he saw in a very old MMO he once played; Elsword was the name as far as he could remember. It was mostly silver with highlights that were literally lights and stood much taller than the boy.

When Aquarius cleared him for launch, Aenon had difficulty getting into the suit, as it wasn't built for his size of person. After making enough adjustments to make riding in it bearable, he activated the suit. "It seems this thing works on advanced maneuvering mechanics. It feels like a second skin… that's way too big."

"The second skin part was intentional. It was built not only to allow the rider to survive harsher environments, but to also allow them to do things that you could do outside of the suit."

"On second thought, I feel the suit of armor analogy would fit better…"

Aquarius ignored that as he opened the air lock for the submarine. "Your first objective is to secure provisions and a source of clean water. Once that is done, we need to find an alternate power source for this vessel if you wish to use any other facility."

Aenon chuckled sadly. "That second one is going to be quite the stretch, Aquarius. I highly doubt there's going to be a random power source just laying around for us to use. It would be easier just to construct a solar battery."

"Duly noted. In any case, I'll keep in touch with you on your suit's HUD system, so don't feel as though you're completely alone." He simply nodded to that, the suit's head nodding with him, as he walked into the air lock.

It didn't take long after the door behind him sealed before the other door opened, instantly flooding the room. Neptune's water-navigation systems kicked in and Aenon was able to swim to the surface near a shoreline. The boy entertained the idea of creating a flight module for the suit.

When he emerged from the water onto land, Both Aenon and Aquarius beheld the surface for the first time in over 12,000 years as the sun was setting. Where they were, all they could see was greenery and forest, untouched by the influence of society. Aenon keenly noted the chirping birds and chittering insects, but the suit picked up no signs of mammalian life, human or otherwise.

This disheartened the boy. "I guess humans weren't the only mammals consumed by the floods…" He shook his head. "No time for that. Can the scanners be set to search for edible flora?"

-SCANNER SETTINGS MODIFIED…

-SCANNING…

-REIGON RICH WITH APPLE TREES, ORANGE TREES, AND RASPBERRY BUSHES. ALL SAFE FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION

"Huh, that was easy…" Heading into the forest, Aenon quickly saw what the suit meant. Every fifth tree was an apple or orange tree and the raspberry bushes were often nearby. Wanting to quiet his stomach, he disembarked from the suit and began picking berries and fruit. "A shame no cherry trees around. Those were always my favorite."

The suit has a storage container as a foot-step, so all the provisions collected went in there. Just as the boy was about to eat an apple, the suit's systems started blaring, forcing him to reenter the suit.

-WARNING: GROUP OF UNIDENTIFIED ENTITIES DETECTED. ADVANCE WITH EXTREME CAUTION

"Unidentified? Then again, 12,000 years WOULD be long enough for Darwinian evolution to create new species. I wonder who they evolved from?" Aenon reentered and directed the suit towards the location of the signals.

When he grew close, he saw what the suit was warning him about: in what looks like a campground, there were human-like entities with tentacle-like hair milling about. In the middle of it all was a giant wooden structure that sounded like there was a paint battle waging on.

"Aenon, I would not advise getting any closer." Aquarius' voice suddenly cut through the suit's speakers, startling the boy. "They may look human, but both the suit and I are unable to identify what they actually are. Additionally, there is no guarantee you'll be able to communicate with them even if they are friendly."

"Yeah… and yet I'm still relieved to see a new species taking over for humanity. I still hope they're friend- " He zoomed in on the battleground in the middle and saw one of them shoot a bright pink fluid at another, causing the second one to explode with the same pink fluid. "Never mind… they're probably violent."

Aquarius hummed. "So, it would seem… my advice is to make sure none of them see you. We can study them at a later point; survival is far more paramount. I've found a river that leads into the ocean coming from the lake you see before you. That'll do for clean water."

Once Aenon was hydrated, he started making his way to shore, the sun now below the horizon. Right before he entered the water, he saw a peculiar sight: there was a giant flying object in the distance that looked like it was holding a giant fish with glowing whiskers. Close by were a multitude of other flying objects, some of them dangling bags filled with… presumably smaller fish that all had glowing whiskers.

Even with the zoom function, Aenon was unable to identify anything. What he did see was one of the glowing fish falling out of a bag into the water. The carriers paid no attention it as they flew to what looked like a hollowed-out island in the distance.

Aenon couldn't contain his curiosity, even when he was hungry. Diving into the ocean, he quickly headed to the place where the one fish fell in. When he arrived, he was stunned by what he found: a creature that bears a striking resemblance to a catfish, yet the quick scans showed that it had an organ capable of producing electricity. "Well, Aquarius, looks like you weren't just whistling dixy when you said FIND a power source."

"I wouldn't celebrate too soon. That electric catfish might not be friendly like the other species we've seen so far."

"Never hurts to try." Aenon knew that simply going up to the scared fish would probably get him zapped. As such, he slowly approached the fish within it's clear view, attempting to use some body language to convey that he wasn't hostile.

The fish responded by swimming rapidly into the suit's arms like a scared child, surprising Aquarius. "I guess what you saw earlier scared this creature half to death. Hopefully if doesn't misinterpret our intentions." There was a moment of silence before he suddenly said, "Interestingly enough, this fish can breathe both underwater and above it as well."

"Glad to know I won't suffocate it bringing it on board the sub. That'll just be perfect; save a creature from death, only to kill it in it's supposed safe environment." Cradling the electric catfish, Aenon headed back to the submarine. He noted that the suit's energy reserves started recharging after he took the creature in his arms. Looking down, the fish had what appeared to be a happy look with it's whiskers planted in the suit's chest piece. "Also glad these little guys don't mind being a power source. I would feel kind of bad exploiting a creature like this if I didn't want to do so."

"And yet you saw fit to bring it back to the vessel regardless?"

Aenon pouted at that response. "I wouldn't have exploited the poor thing! I would have just kept it safe, maybe keep it as a pet! I know I have you, Aquarius, but one can never have too much company."

"I'll take your word for it. By the way, you're on the wrong side." Aenon yelped when he almost ran into the side of the now uncloaked submarine, earning a look of confusion from the catfish.

After getting on the right side and entering the sub, he disembarked the suit, causing the creature some surprise, but was happy to know that his savior wasn't as metallic as he thought. He started nuzzling his holder affectionately, causing Aenon to tingle pleasantly. "Aww, I love you too, little one."

He didn't know if the catfish could understand him, but he cuddled it just to show his own affection. Aquarius got his attention with a low cough. "Perhaps you should eat before anything else. I recall the suit's sensors interrupting your meal, so you've still yet to ingest anything."

"R-right! Hope you like fruits and berries, Voltare!"

"You're naming the fish? And after your late friend no less…"

"Why not? By no means is he going to be a replacement for the human Voltare. I just figured giving him a fitting name in honor of my friend would help…"

"Of course. I didn't mean any harm in asking that question."

 _In Octo Canyon_

"Did you imbeciles seriously drop one of the small zapfish into the ocean?!" DJ Octavio growled at his lack-of-serious-intelligence-and-sapience Octarian troopers. "And after all the trouble the Octolings went through to get them all, yo!"

"Relax, DJ. As long as there's enough zapfish for every kettle, we should be fine." Callie, with her hypnoshades on, interjected. "How many zapfish do we currently have total?"

One of the nearby Octolings quickly stepped forward. "Minus the one zapfish lost, we have 27 small zapfish, 32 mini zapfish, and the great zapfish itself, sir!"

Octavio grumbled. "Thank the beats we still have enough. Commence the next phase of our plan! Inkopolis WILL fall this time!"


	3. Chapter 2

"Good to know you can eat this kind of food, Voltare." Aenon was still in the suit maintenance bay with his new companion, eating the fruit and berries he had gathered during his foray onto the surface. As it turns out, the electric catfish can eat fruits and, presumably, vegetables.

Aquarius hummed a bit before saying, "I've done a more advanced scan on him while you ate. Apparently, it can indeed ingest vegetative matter alongside more fleshy meals, just like his catfish ancestors."

"Roundabout way to say his species is still omnivorous. Still, I'm glad I can at least feed him something"

"Indeed. However, I highly doubt this little one will be able to produce enough energy to power this ship."

Aenon scoffed. "I figured that much out already. I'd still rather construct a solar battery than exploit a species just because they can produce electricity." He gently pats Voltare on the head, who let out a small, joyful noise at the affection. "Speaking of construction, I had a brainwave while heading towards the surface. Before I say what, is Neptune a modular suit?"

There was silence as Aquarius scanned both the build-logs and the suit itself before saying, "It is indeed built with a modular nature in mind. In fact, I have already found some completed modules that are ready to be attached to the suit."

"Great! I was thinking that a flight module would be great for exploring above water more aptly. I feel mobility will be key if I'm to observe that land-dwelling species without being caught myself."

"I wouldn't hold your breath. Neptune's energy efficiency is currently subpar. Even if you were to create the most energy efficient flight module, it would strain the suit's power supply far to quickly to be usable."

Aenon sighed at that as he rubbed his temples. "What modules are already finished?"

"There's a grappling hook attachment, a scanner module for increasing the suit's scanner power, and modules for both heating and cooling; good for exploring heated pockets or cold areas. It should be noted that the scanners for the suit are radically incomplete, meaning you'll need the scanner enhancement if you wish to identify creatures and objects more accurately."

"So, the grappling hook is the only option for mobility… I'd still like to build a flight module in the event I can find some way to off-set the power demands and- Voltare?"

The electric catfish started jumping up and down excitedly when Aenon mentioned off-setting power demands. Aquarius noted the correlation. "I think he's volunteering to be the suit's power source, from my understanding." Voltare nodded vigorously.

"Wha- are you sure about that? I thought you would be averse to that considering I just saw a lot of your kind, including yourself, get fished up at once presumably for that explicit purpose…" When Aenon saw that Voltare wasn't any less excitable about it, he sighs. "I guess you don't mind it then, huh? You win, but I'm going to make sure you're at least comfortable in that suit while you're in it. If PETA still existed, they would have my head for this…"

Aenon decided to scrutinize Neptune to find where Voltare could possibly be comfortable. He noted the slightly barren arms more so now that he wasn't plagued by hunger, as well as an openable panel that contained slots for the three modules Aquarius mentioned earlier. What stuck out most to him was the bulkier-than-needed chest piece that, when opened, was fairly hollow.

Aenon was about to comment on it before Aquarius cut him off. "Yes, that was meant to be a power core slot to give the suit much more energy than normal. However, the core was incomplete when this vessel was launched and the parts needed for is were not included in the inventory."

"An energy core slot, huh? I'm amazed the suit lasted as long as it did without a proper energy core." After holstering Voltare up to the entrance, the catfish entered the suit and stuck his whiskers in two small holes in the walls of the suit. "The suit is now acting like it has a generator in it's chest-piece now. Guess all I really need to install is comfort items."

Said comfort items weren't hard to come by. A bunch of cushions and blankets later, the chest slot looked more like a simple living abode rather than a power generator. Aenon also found some mini speakers and wires, rewiring the suit a little so that Voltare could hear him while he was inside the suit.

With the chest piece finished, Voltare looked very comfortable in this abode, getting a rare chuckle out of Aquarius. "Might want to be careful. He might fall asleep in there rather than power Neptune. I would suggest installing some rechargeable external batteries as to give yourself more leniency when he takes a break from powering the suit."

"Duly noted. In the meantime, I think I'll work on that flight enhancement; I've noted some spare jets and other odds and ends in the parts storage area, so I'm going to start there." Aenon thought for a moment before coming to a realization. "How come there aren't any weaponry for the suit? I know father wasn't the biggest fan of weapons after his one attempt in that giant Statue of Liberty recreation, but…"

"That's exactly it. The good professor wanted the suit to be used purely for exploration and navigation in hostile environments. Creating weaponry for the suit would divert it from it's intended construction, though I can understand your concern. If those… entities we saw earlier were any indication, the new inhabitants of the surface might be as prone to violence as humans."

"I agree with you, but I think I'll keep from developing any weapons unless I absolutely need to. I feel dirty even just thinking about it." Aenon sighed as he walked towards the storage area of the submarine. "No sense getting worked up over that, though. I'm going to get to work on Neptune's wings ASAP. This is going to take a while…"

* * *

 _A few days later in Inkopolis Square_

Marie simply stood on the grate leading to Octo Canyon in silence, watching the younger inklings as they went about their day. Some have given her curious glances, but nobody thus far has shown any real interest in her.

She sighed as she thought about the past again. Between their exploding popularity and differing career paths, she never really had time to visit her cousin who formed one-half of the Squid Sisters. However, while they did keep in touch, Marie knew that Callie was facing hard times in regards to her chosen path and the stress she was dealing with. Marie had plenty of stress as well, but she knew how to deal with it easier than Callie ever did; it doesn't help your case when you're a very outgoing inkling.

Marie did try to invite Callie on vacation to give her some room to breathe, but two days after the vacation started yielded her cousin never showing up for it, causing it to be cut short. When she got back to Octo Valley, she found out that DJ Octavio has broken out of his prison.

The only thing she could think of was the worst: that Octavio had broken out and squidnapped Callie for reasons currently unknown to her. It doesn't help when you find out that all of the zapfish, including the great zapfish, have disappeared as well.

With her grandfather on a research trip with Agent 3, she was the only person in the New Squidbeak Splatoon available to do anything about it. She knew she couldn't do it alone, so she decided to do what her grandfather did to recruit Agent 3: hope that someone is curious enough about her to follow her all the way to Octo Canyon and accept her request.

Marie opened her eyes and adjusted her parasol in time to see a young female inkling with yellow ink color approaching her with curiosity in her eyes. She also has a similar look that Agent 3 had, meaning to the older Inkling that, perhaps, this one is the one who can help her.

With that in mind, she turned into her squid form and dove down into the grates, hoping the young girl would follow her.

* * *

 _Night time at the Life Boat Submarine_

"Finally finished!" Aenon cried out in victory as he stretched. He knew developing a flight kit for Neptune wouldn't be easy even if the jets were pretty well already complete. Welding all of the parts together elegantly, and making sure every part worked as it should, was a pain without others to help him. He may be an engineer and inventor like his father, but he's no one-man army. His only real saving grace was that he built it directly inside the maintenance bay.

"Perhaps you should get some sleep. You only had one nap during your time making that thing and ever since you were released from stasis. You would be in serious trouble if you were to get sick now, since our medical facilities are still offline."

Aenon grunted. While his lack of sleep was starting to catch up to him, he still didn't feel too tired to test out his new wings. "I'll catch some sleep after a test flight. Hopefully Voltare doesn't mind a late-night flight."

After attaching the flight kit to the suit, he got to work programming the suit to operate them. He was thankful for a random data cache relating to flight in the computer system. When that was finished, he quickly checked on Voltare, who was woken up from Aenon's bustling around, but was happy to see him. "You up for a test flight, Voltare? I'm willing to bet you'll be able to see a lot of scenery through your little window on the door."

Voltare nodded happily and got ready to power the suit while Aenon climbed back in. He had already taken the liberty of inserting the scanner enhancement and attaching the grappling hook; he may need them in a tight situation.

After launching out of the air lock and swimming back into the surface, Aenon initiated the flight program and launched into the air. It was a little shaky considering that the jets aren't exactly perfect, but they functioned enough to allow flight through the air. During this, Voltare had an easy time powering Neptune, power never fell below 70%, yet he still enjoyed the view despite how dark everything was.

During the flight, Aenon noticed something he couldn't believe he missed the other day. "There's a city over here? It looks almost like a human city too!"

Aquarius chimed in through the suit's HUD. "If it was a human city, it would've been rusted out and overgrown at this point in time. It would be more logical to assume that those entities we saw before built this city. It is certainty impressive that they're more human-like than just in appearance."

As Aenon flew closer to the city, he noted that there wasn't much activity going on in the streets. The upgraded scanners told him that the inhabitants were most likely sleeping. "I get the feeling they're lazier then we initially thought, possibly in spite of their violent tendencies." Zooming in, he saw some signs and writing on a tower. "Joey Asoia?"

There was a sigh from Aquarius. "Please do not attempt to pronounce their writing in your language. I highly doubt you'll get far doing that."

"Fine… regardless, I'm not too keen on exploring this place in full detail, even if most of the inhabitants are sleeping. I'm close enough to be spotted as it is, so I think checking out that hollow island will *yawn* suffice…"

"I would suggest returning and sleeping until morning. Not only will tiredness make you more careless, but you'll have better visibility during the daytime. While Neptune does have some built-in lights, they're not going to do you much good in the air."

"Fiiiiine, have it your way. I did say this would be just a test flight, so we've already accomplished. However, there's one thing I want to do before I head back."

Aenon redirected the suit towards where he was picking fruit the other day. His stock ran out, so he was going to grab more for breakfast in the morning. Not only that, but he remembered something he and his friends did before being put into stasis.

After gathering enough fruit, he went to a small clearing in the forest. "This place hasn't changed much in 12,000 years…" Aenon was suddenly struck with a wave of homesickness. Shaking it off, he had the suit dig at a nearby spot.

It didn't take long before he found what he was looking for: a time capsule he and his friends had buried all those years ago. Disembarking from Neptune, he opened it and found two items: a pendent and a hypercompact data drive that contained a multitude of songs from when humanity was still around, including video game songs.

Aenon took the pendent and opened it up. There, he saw the picture him, his father, and his friends took a month before stasis on his birthday. As this was taken before talks of tensions rising between nations, this is the last time they would ever be truly happy.

On the inside of the lid, there was an inscription:

 _ **Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.**_

Aenon put the chain around his neck and clutched the locket close to his heart, silent tears running down his face now, as he took the data drive from the capsule. A concerned warble emanated from the suit and when he turned to look, Voltare was looking out the window, face full of worry. Aenon wiped his tears before opening the hatch and hugging the catfish. "I'm okay, Voltare. Just remembering times long gone can be… hard. Come on, let's go home."

It didn't take long before the pair were back in the submarine, with Voltare being extracted from Neptune and confirmed to be completely fine after having to power a suit for approximately an hour, the two retired to the closest living quarters and went to bed.

While the two slept, Aquarius decided to run through some data Neptune's enhanced scanners were able to pick up. The creatures living in the nearby city had DNA that was almost unique, matching certain sequences held only by squids. "Perhaps they are descendants of squids who evolved to live on land. I'm kind of surprised squids took that long to evolve this much, but then again, RNA Editing is probably far too much change at once. They allowed Darwinian evolution to lead them down what is basically the same path as humans once did."

What concerned the A.I. was the signals the suit was receiving from the hollowed-out island far off the coast of that city. The suit's scanner was too far away to identify them, but they were both numerous in number and seemingly underground.

Were there other species that evolved similarly to the squids?


	4. Chapter 3

Aenon woke up feeling fairly well rested from his test flight last night, in spite of the heartache he made himself go through digging up that time capsule left behind by him and his friends. He knew he had to dispose of all 499 bodies from the stasis room at some point; all it had become was a meat freezer reminding Aquarius of his failure.

Voltare was just as rested as Aenon, though he was already feeling hungry from both last night and from sleep. After a quick meal of apple slices and raspberries, he was ready to power Neptune once again.

He really liked powering the suit for the human boy; not only did he save the zapfish from being lost in the ocean but gave him food and a place to rest. He didn't mind providing power to the Inklings, but he felt more important with Aenon than he ever did with them.

Aquarius filled in Aenon on the data Neptune managed to obtain last night in regards to the human-squid species. While it wasn't much, it did explain why the hair looked more akin to tentacles than actual hair.

After Aenon lifted Voltare into the power chamber, Aquarius caught his attention. "I know this hasn't been needed up until now, but may I suggest taking one of the headsets in this room with you? That way, I'll be able to keep in touch with you even if you disembark from Neptune for whatever reason."

Said headsets were pure white and wrapped around the back of the head. It also had a glowing blue logo on both ear pieces that looked similar to an eye with two tildes in the pupil; the mark of his family and father's side business. He was aware of their functions; it basically acted like a communication device that can also act as a translator.

Aenon was unsure if the translator would work for the new species but being able to communicate with Aquarius will be vital. As such, he heeded the A.I.'s advice and took a pair and put it on after some adjustments. "Hopefully this thing had good battery life. I don't want to rely on Voltare to power everything."

"Worry not. Unlike the suit, the headset was built to last a whole month on a single charge. Even if it runs low on energy, it can connect with Neptune to recharge if needed."

"Good to know. Alright, time to see what the deal is with that hollow island and, just maybe, see if we can't find Voltare's family." The catfish let out a joyful warble at those words; he misses his family despite finding a new family in Aenon and Aquarius.

After some quick adjustments to the clasps and jets of the flight kit and grabbing some maintenance tools to put in storage, Neptune launched into the ocean for a third time. After reaching shore in order to take to the air, they were well on their way to the hollow island. As they got closer, Aenon noted that some of the rock formations looked like octopus tentacles and there were various platforms attached to them.

-WARNING: FLIGHT JET OVERHEATING. LAND IMMEDIATLY

"Bugger! I guess I didn't check the jets good enough." Aenon spied the closest platform and decided to land on it before one of the jets exploded on him. Once he landed on a grate near an oriental hut with a thud, he immediately cut power off to the jets to prevent any further overheating. "Guess that's why I brought some tools this time. Foresight doesn't always work, but when it does…"

The HUD suddenly alerted him of movement to his right and he whipped his head around to look. He, or rather the suit, locked eyes with one of the human-squids that now resides on the surface and, for the first time, he was able to get a good look at one of them.

This one, most likely a female, had black markings around the eyes that were connected across the bridge of her nose. Additionally, her tentacles were grey in color as opposed to the bright pink and green he saw from the other two he saw at that campsite. She wore what appeared to be a green kimono and was holding an oriental parasol.

Both parties stood there frozen in place, looking at each other and waiting for the other to make a move.

Marie had never seen such a mechanical monstrosity, even in spite of one of its shoulders smoking as if there was overheating. Her very first thought was wondering if it was a new weapon or suit the Octarians developed; she could see a zapfish powering the thing in the chest. With Coral, Agent 4, off on a mission in one of the nearby kettles, she had no real way of defending herself.

"Marie, I'm back from-" Coral had just came back from her third mission as Agent 4 with another zapfish rescued. When she headed back to the Cuttlefish hut to talk to Marie about the "boss kettle", she found a bipetal machine staring right at her. Her first reaction was to point her pathetic excuse for a gun at the thing with shaky hands. "D-don't you d-dare hurt her!"

Aenon heard some sort of dialect as the HUD informed him of the second person; a shorter, presumably younger, human-squid with yellow tentacles made to look akin to a short bob cut and decked out in what looked like safety gear. The main difference was the small stick she was holding: the suit identified firing mechanisms inside of it, marking it as a firearm.

Coral had started shuddering even more when the machine turned to look at her. Marie quickly realized what was going on and tried to say, "Agent 4, don't fi-" The machine had started raising a claw and Coral shot out of pure panic and fear.

The ink bullets deflected off the armor, not even sticking to the surface. Seeing the machine as uninkable, the young inkling let out a very distressed woomy as Marie facepalmed.

Neptune was quick to pick up on what just happened:

-RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS…

-PROJECTILES IDENTIFIED AS INK. NO DAMAGE SUSTAINED

-RE-EVALUATING THREAT LEVELS…

-THREAT LEVEL TO SUIT: PAINT-JOB RUINER

-THREAT LEVEL TO PERSONELLE: CLOTHING WASHER NEMESIS

Aenon let out a sigh at the re-evaluated threat levels. "Aquarius, did you tamper with the suit's systems?"

"Negative. From my understanding, Neptune's operating system was programmed by a very snarky programmer."

"Oh, for the love of…"

Marie sighed as she walked over to Coral and lowered her hero shot. "Agent 4, I really don't think this thing is hostile to begin with. If it was, it would have attacked me on sight."

Coral let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "O-oh… s-so I was just being hasty?"

"Very much so." She observed the machine for a little bit longer when it suddenly started kneeling down and deactivated.

Aenon figured that staying in the suit wouldn't get him anywhere with these creatures. Since they clearly can't do much harm to him with their weapons, he decided that getting out would show them that he truly meant no harm to them.

The older one reacted with surprise when she beheld what he actually looked like while he got a good look at the two. To his surprise, he realized that he was almost double the size of the larger one; the squids apparently didn't evolve to become as big as humans.

He heard one of them start saying something to him, but since he didn't understand any of it, he merely shook his head and shrugged, hoping it would convey his inability to understand. He was delighted to know that they, at the very least, shared the same body language even if oral language was currently beyond them.

"Aenon, it would interest you to know that I've already finished the translator program for their language. Sending it to your headset now."

This baffled Aenon. "Wait, you barely heard them speak, and you can ALREADY translate their entire language?!"

"I'm just as confused as you are. It seems that during my development, someone inserted a highly efficient, highly advanced translator program into my data frame. Compounded with the more advanced scanners on Neptune providing me with excellent data, I can already upload the translator program for this new language."

The inklings were confused by the male having a conversation with himself in a language unknown to them. They jumped in shock when he suddenly said, in their _own_ language, "- erstand how only a few spoken words can allow you to do that! It utterly defies belief!"

Marie decided to speak up cautiously. "Uh… stay fresh?"

Aenon stopped in his tracks when he heard the older female suddenly speak… and he can understand her now. "Uh… always fresh, never frozen?"

Marie giggled; she would have to remember that one for later. "It seems we can understand each other now somehow."

"Chalk it up to my A.I. companion, who I was talking to just now through my headset. I guess as long as we can talk to each other normally, I can… overlook it. My name is Aenon"

"I'm Marie and this is Coral, a.k.a. Agent 4. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're a human, aren't you?"

Coral and Aenon looked at her in surprise. Aenon spoke up first, "Uh… I didn't realize I was that identifiable to your kind, whom I know little about outside of you being decedents of squids."

Coral decided to speak up, fear forgotten due to how non-threatening Aenon's voice was now. "You're correct. We call ourselves Inklings, but we identify as squids as well." Looking at Marie, she frowned. "How did you guess his species? He looks similar to us outside of his hair not looking like ours and being massive; taller than even the colossal squids back in Inkopolis."

Marie shrugged. "I have my sources."

"Being cryptic I see. Ah, well…" Aenon shook his head. "Regardless, I don't intend on being a threat to your kind; I have enough to worry about already and the last thing I need is enemies."

"Don't worry, I figured as much when you never attacked, even after Agent 4 shot your suit." She gives the younger Inkling a flat look, who coughed awkwardly. "Weren't you about to talk to me about something?"

"OH! Yeah, after clearing the third kettle, the giant kettle in the middle of Tentakeel Outpost opened up. I was coming back to ask you about it when Aenon showed up."

Marie nodded. This whole scenario was shaping up to be very similar to that incident two years ago with Agent 3. "That kettle will more than likely lead you to a very tough Octarian weapon. Before you start panicking, no, I doubt they're completely uninkable. Just keep calm and you'll find victory, for _eel_ this time."

Coral nodded and suddenly disappeared into her yellow ink, baffling Aenon. He decided to ask about it soon but was too amused by what Marie said. "Wait, your kind speaks in puns? You've got to be _squidding_ me!"

Marie grinned at his words. "Don't be such a fish out of water."

"Your kind clearly are. I'm betting that it's an a _gill_ ity unique only to you."

"Err… not exactly. I suppose we can take this time to properly explain things to each other and get ourselves caught up to speed. Last thing we need is confusion getting in our way of communicating."

Aquarius spoke up suddenly, "I have to agree. Information on the new dominant species will, no doubt, give us a better understanding of their culture."

Aenon nodded and Marie beckoned him. "We can talk over here by this shack since there is no danger."

Aenon learned quite a few things about the Inklings during his conversation with Marie. He found out that they can switch between their humanoid form and a cute squid form for traveling through ink of their color; this was possible because Inklings were mostly comprised of ink. Additionally, the battle Aenon saw at that campground, identified as Camp Triggerfish, was a turf war battle and that getting "splatted" wasn't a permanent death for Inklings as long as a "respawner" is nearby and active.

He found it fascinating that Inkling society, despite being obsessed with fashion and ink battles, were far more peaceful than the humans ever were. If humans could have played paintball without the worries that came with the game, he figured that people would do that to blow off steam rather than use more concussive weapons. Plus, ink battles never harmed the environment long-term; the ink evaporates within 20 minutes of landing on the ground.

Coral had ringed Marie up to inform her of her success with the Octo Oven, a name which earned a snort out of Aenon. Marie contacted someone named Sheldon over upgrading and using new weaponry in Octo Canyon, before returning to conversation with Aenon, not wanting to reveal his presence to anyone else at this point in time.

After that, Aenon also learned of other species who evolved alongside the Inklings to live on land, including the Octarians who they were fighting. After hearing the whole story; between The Great Turf War, the incident two years ago, and now, Aenon let out a sigh. "Sure, it's easy to just villainize the Octarians. But, speaking as an outside third party, is the situation really as nuanced as you think?"

This confused Marie. "Care to explain?"

"Well, they were forced underground after The Great Turf War with no real way of providing themselves with sustainable power. Don't you think these attacks were more so out of desperation to improve their condition?"

"That doesn't justify them stealing someone else's power source…"

Aenon shook his head. "I know it doesn't. But fear and desperation can overwrite one's concepts of morality if their situation is bad enough. What's more, taking back what they've stolen with force will only serve to further justify their fears."

Marie let out a sigh. Deep down, she knew Aenon was right, at least for the incident two years ago when Agent 3 wound up rescuing zapfish both from military bases and civilian kettles. "Two years ago, you may very well have been right. This time, however, they didn't donate any of their zapfish to civilian kettles as far as I know. In fact, Octo Canyon, which is where we are now, is entirely a military district for the Octarians."

"I see. I guess they're just straight up out for revenge rather than improving their lives this time. That kind of makes my sentiment earlier ring hollow…"

Marie patted him on the arm. "At least you made a fair point that I never considered. I suppose it's best if we can retrieve all of the zapfish from them to prevent their mad plans from falling through."

Aenon nodded before horror crossed his face. "Oh no! I forgot about Voltare!" He bolted to his suit and managed to extract the zapfish from it, earning a joyful warble and a cuddle from the fish.

Marie hummed to herself. "I saw you had a zapfish powering that suit and I'm glad you're treating it well, but I'm wondering where you found him."

"I saw him fall out of the net the Octarians were transporting him in with his kind. I looked out of curiosity and now I have a new companion." Aenon realized what that meant. "I'm… sorry about taking one of your zapfish."

Marie giggled; she liked his honesty. "It's completely fine. You treat him well and he likes you a lot. If he wants to stay with you, who am I to say no?"

Aenon breathed a sigh of relief as Voltare let out another happy warble. This brought a question to his mind. "I have to wonder something. How was Voltare able to understand me even before I used my translator headset? I was practically an alien to him, yet he always acted like he understood my words, or at least what I was trying to convey."

"That… is a mystery to us Inklings too. Some scientists have tried to explain that zapfish are capable of processing soundwaves in a very advanced way, but I think they're just spit balling that as an explanation rather than hard fact."

"I'm an engineer, not a biologist, so I have no way of knowing. Unless Aquarius decides to be a hero again."

The A.I. grumbled in his ear before saying, "The scans don't show any details in regards to that particular biological function. The most notable things about these creatures, now catalogued as zapfish, is their ability to breath in and out of water and their electricity-producing organ."

"Figures as much." Aenon shakes his head. "Not even our tech can explain it… as miraculous it can be if earlier was any indication."

Marie giggled. "Easy goes for me. Anyways, want to talk about your side of the ordeal? The most we know about humans is that they left certain artifacts behind and that they were wiped off the earth rather unexpectedly… at least according to some of the fossils we found."

Aenon felt very strange and unsure about the bones of his kind being considered fossils. "Well… we weren't wiped out suddenly. Guess I should start from the beginning."

Marie had learned a lot of things about the human race that scholars of that field would splat to know. Humans evolved similarly to squids in that they emerged from the sea from their common ancestor, where they eventually evolved into the mostly hairless apes capable of creating great and terrible things. What caused humanity's extinction wasn't the rising sea levels, but a world war that caused the rising sea levels to begin with.

What really caught Marie was when he mentioned humanity's attempts to preserve themselves, only to fail due to the self-same world war. He brought up his vessel; a stasis submarine capable of holding 500 individuals for an extended period of time in order to ensure a future existed for them. It had also failed. A virus had infected the pods, causing the machinery to kill their occupants. All except for him.

Aenon was the last human alive, possibly in existence. Marie felt sympathetic towards the human; to be alive in a world where he's the only one left. The loneliness of Callie's absence couldn't compare to his suffering.

Aenon felt a tug on his sleeve and saw that Coral had already come back. "Didn't you go to the next area already?"

"I did, but I figured I would save going through the kettles there later. Moreover… you don't have to be alone here."

Aenon was confused by her words. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that Marie and I will be here for you in case you need anyone to talk to besides Aquarius. I don't know how much I'll be able to do this, but I'll do my best to try and help you adapt to Inkling society during your time here!" She strikes a confident pose, earning a chuckle out of Aenon.

Marie nodded. "Indeed. That way you can experience our culture first-hand." There was a loud grumbling and everyone looked at Aenon, who blushed. "Someone hasn't eaten in a while."

"Not since this morning. Voltare and I have been making due with the fruits and berries found nearby Camp Triggerfish, but I doubt they can sustain me forever. Man… I could really go for a hot dog right now…"

Marie could tell the two of them are going to get along just fine. Coral spoke up, "I have an idea! I found a bunch of meal tickets in some of these kettles that I can redeem for crusty seanwiches! Be right back!" She bolted to the nearby grate and dove down in squid form.

Marie let out a snicker at Aenon's confused look. "You haven't lived until you tasted a seanwich. I'm sure it'll tide your hotdog craving over."


	5. Chapter 4

While Marie and Aenon waited for Coral to get back with the "seanwiches", Aenon decided to climb on top of Neptune to try and fix the problem with the overheating jet. Marie decided to let Voltare mingle with the four zapfish Coral had already saved as she looked at the intelligence reports the Cuttlefish Cabin was receiving.

She noted some odd signals coming from one of the regular kettles that put her on edge. She had never seen these mixed-up signals ever before, even back when she was helping Agent 3 when her grandfather was squidnapped.

"I'm back!" Coral had just popped out of the grate and pulled out a box, presumably containing the seanwiches. "Crusty Sean was really nice today! He gave me two freebies when I told him that I wanted to get these to share with my friends!"

Marie smiled at that. "That's Crusty Sean for you. A lot of Inklings, myself included, were worried he was going to get taken advantage of during his time as a shoe shop owner. Good to know he's forged his own path in life!"

Aenon looked at the two Inklings in wonder. Their society was looking more and more like the positive aspects of human society. _Perhaps father's fears were misplaced when he got Tartar to contain all of humanity's knowledge in order for our mistakes to never be repeated…_

"Aenon, you coming down to eat?"

The human gave a start when Marie called up to him. He shook himself before nodding. "Sorry, just deep in thought. Be right down."

He was soon in deep-fried heaven when he took his first bite. What looked like a tempura between two buns tasted more like a high-quality corndog that assaulted his taste buds with extravagant flavors. Coral giggled at the look he had. "You really were missing on this heavenly taste. Good to know you share taste in food with us Inklings!"

"I'm beginning to think you guys acquired certain strands of human DNA due to how scarily close our species seem to be."

Marie shook her head. "Don't worry, we already tested that and we have zero human DNA in our blood."

"That's the scariest part of this." That got a good laugh out of everyone.

Coral had a sudden brilliant idea. "I know! How about I give you a tour of Inkopolis Square? That way you can really see what Inkling culture is like!"

Aenon was about to agree to it when a problem came up in his mind. Marie seemed to have the same thought because she said, "Are you sure about that? He's taller than even the colossal squids, his hair looks nothing like ours, his teeth look different, and his clothes seem rather… alien."

Aenon looked at his clothes when they were brought up. All he had on was a shirt and pants that was designed to help maximize the energy efficiency of the cryo-stasis pods. Both were a dark blue with a yellow line running down the sides. His shoes matched as well; he looked like something that came from a dystopia where everyone wears the same thing that all looks the same.

Coral scanned Aenon before letting out a sigh. "I can get a hat and bandana to cover your mouth and hair up just fine, but your clothing size will be a problem unless we know your… dimensions for everything."

"I can help with that." Aenon jumped when Aquarius spoke up, earning confused looks from the Inklings. "I already have your body proportions in my data base for use in the clothing fabricator, but it went unused due to power constraints. Sending the data, translated into Inklish, to your headset now."

"Way to scare me like that, Aquarius…" Shaking his head, Aenon motioned to the Inklings. "I'm getting my proportions sent to me in your language. Hopefully the owners won't mind making such huge articles."

"I'm sure they won't. They make clothes for more species than just Inklings, so this'll probably be another day at the office for them." Coral smiled. "Glad to know this will be easier than I thought!"

"Well… as Marie already said, easy goes for me."

After showing the data on the headset through a hologram, something that amazed the Inklings, Coral wrote down the information needed before running towards the grate. Marie stopped her before she dove in. "Give me the bills for those clothes and I'll compensate you for it. This is technically something that falls under the purview of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, so it seems unfair to make you pay for it."

After Coral nodded and dove down, Aenon was overwhelmed by a sense of guilt, causing a concerned warble to come from Voltare. "You guys are getting me so many things despite me… literally being an alien and only knowing you guys for an hour at most. Why?"

Marie gave him a soft smile. "Because both of us feel you deserve a chance to experience our society for yourself. And so that you don't feel so alone in this new world."

"But… how will I ever repay this?"

"You don't have to."

Aenon sat there in stunned silence before bowing his head. "You guys really are too kind…" Looking back up with a determined look he adds, "I swear I WILL find a way to repay your kindness one day. Maybe not today or within a month, but I will!"

Marie knew from his expression that he wasn't going to take no for an answer and wondered if all humans were stubborn like him. _Then again, there are some Inklings who can be just as stubborn, so who am I to judge…_

It didn't take long before Coral returned. "They were more than happy to fulfill the orders, but it'll take them until at least tomorrow before the articles are finished. Just so we don't arouse too much suspicion, I had them make one-star gear as to prevent people from thinking he is a high-level ink battler."

Marie nodded as she received the bill. "Sounds good. What are you going to do for the rest of today?"

"I think I'll rescue one more zapfish before heading back to the Square for a few rounds of Turf wars. I probably won't be back to rescue anymore zapfish tomorrow since I'll be showing Aenon around."

Aenon grimaced. "You don't have to do this for me if its important to save the zapfish!"

"It is, but with how recently the Octarians stole the zapfish, I doubt they're in any position to mobilize anything too destructive." Marie patted Aenon on the arm with a smile. "For now, I'd suggest going back to your submarine to rest up for tomorrow; you're going to have a busy day."

"I need to finish repairing the flight jets first, but I'll be sure to do that."

Coral nodded and "super jumped" towards the next section of Octo Canyon: Suction-cup Outlook. Aenon didn't take too long to find the source of the problem: something jammed one of the components and was causing the jet to overwork itself to try and keep flight stable. Removing the debris and making sure nothing else was damaged, he concluded that he was finished.

When he went to grab Voltare, he noticed Marie looking at a few monitors inside the cabin. She notices him and beckons him in. "There are tiny cameras mounted to Agent 4's headgear, allowing me to see what she's doing and communicate with her."

"Basically, you watch over her progress here and give tips or advice to try and help her?"

"Exactly it. I don't want to risk multiple agents out on the field, else the Octarians will catch on to what we're doing much faster."

Aenon looked at what Coral was doing and wondered if there was any way he could help her through these missions. Neptune was designed for exploration, but he's dealt with the suit long enough that it can function as a melee combat suit if the situation calls for it.

Marie must have seen the look on his face because she sighed. "I'll tell you what, come back the day after your grand tour of Inkopolis Square and I'll let you in on some of these missions. Maybe you can point out things Sheldon or I miss."

"It WOULD be a good start to repaying you guys… though won't Sheldon suspect something if he hears me talking? If I'm understanding the situation correctly, you don't really want anyone else knowing about my existence."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Aenon rolled his eyes at that statement but didn't comment further. After waving good bye, making sure Voltare was fine with leaving his friends behind for another day, and hopping back into Neptune, he headed back to the submarine to check on the auxiliary generator and to, maybe, get some shut-eye for tomorrow.

He decided to top both Voltare and himself off with the last of the fruit he had gathered the other day before heading to bed. Since Voltare didn't mind sleeping while being cuddled like a teddy bear, Aenon kept the zapfish by his side while he slept.

During the night, Aquarius ran diagnostics on both the information the translator picked up and what Neptune's scanners picked up while at Octo Valley. He noted the irony of the Inkling's evolution: despite being descendants of sea creatures, they cannot be submerged in water or else osmosis causes their ink bodies to dissipate; a fate he would only wish on the wicked.

What perturbed the A.I. was some of the signals that he could not identify inside the canyon. Though few and far between currently, it perturbed him that there were still unknown signals lurking in the bases of the Octarians, possibly something dangerous to even someone as skilled as Agent 4.

"It's best if I keep an eye out for those signals. If they turn out to be something major, I'll have to warn everyone about them."

* * *

 _The next day_

Coral and Marie were waiting for Aenon as he flew down from the sky and landed opposite to the Cuttlefish Cabin. Disembarking, he found that Coral was holding a package in her hands. "Here's the duds you need to disguise yourself. They were the best I could do on short notice, so hopefully they're alright."

"With you guys doing this for me, I have no right to complain." Aenon opened the packaged and found a Sneaky Beanie set, a Black Baseball LS shirt, and a pair of Blue Laceless Dakroniks; all tailored to fit him. He had changed his original outfit out just so he wasn't wearing clothing that wasn't too used, even though he knew he would be wearing different clothes.

As he looked at each article, something struck him. "I know I shouldn't ask, but… aren't there any pants that come with these?"

Marie giggled. "Not from where Agent 4 got that gear from. Typically, pants are so cheap that we don't consider them gear for ink battles. I'm sure the current pair you have on won't arouse any suspicion considering they look like one of the styles that's currently fresh."

"I'll take your word for it. One minute." He ducked behind Neptune in order to change his shirt; while he wasn't changing his pants, he wanted to remain modest for the girls.

To everyone's delight, the clothing articles fit him to a t. Coral was especially exalted. "Wow, you look great wearing something other than that bland outfit! I'm glad I didn't mess up on the measurements."

"And these clothes are comfy to boot… well maybe except the head gear you got me; the beanie is making my headset feel uncomfortable

Marie shook her head sadly. "You need to understand us if you want to remain inconspicuous, so you'll have to grin and bear it. If I recall, there isn't any other pieces of head gear that covers both the head and mouth like the sneaky beanie set. Mixing and matching head gear is frowned upon for ink battles, though if you give the excuse that you speak a different language and need the headset, it should work."

"Right…" He looks at Coral. "How are we going to do this? Since you have to guide me around the city anyways, want to take a joy ride to the outskirts where we can hide Neptune?"

Coral widened her eyes in surprise. "Wait, I can ride with you? Do I have to sit on a shoulder or hand?"

Aenon went back around Neptune to look at the interior and make some quick mental calculations before returning and nodding. "You're small enough that you can join me inside the suit. It'll be something of a tight fit, but we can make it work."

Coral looked a Marie with bewilderment and excitement in her eyes. Marie giggled and nodded at the young Inkling. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you, Agent 4. I doubt many Inklings can say they've ridden in a high-tech human machine."

Coral nodded excitedly and Aenon laughed at her enthusiasm. "Guess we should get this show on the road, eh? Hopefully you can climb in without my help."

Thanks to the footstep indents of the suit acting as a ladder to Coral, she was able to climb up onto Aenon's back after he entered he suit but kept the hatch open. When the hatch closed, it was a little cramped, but both of them had enough breathing room.

-MULTIPLE OCCUPANTS DETECTED. DEFAULTING MOVEMENT TRACKING TO THE LARGEST OCCUPANT

Coral jumped a bit when she heard that voice, much to Aenon's amusement. "That's just the suit's system. You get used to it."

"A-alright then. Does this thing follow your every move in real time while in here?"

"Yup, even while flying if needed. But for now, let us launch!"

The HUD activated, allowing both occupants to see Marie waving goodbye. Aenon waved back before activating the jets and taking off.

Coral couldn't tell if she was dreaming or not. Super jumping was kind of like flight, but it was too fast and didn't really allow her to enjoy any scenery she passed by.

Inside Neptune is a completely different story. She could see the deep blue ocean underneath her and the clear sky above. In the distance was the forest where Camp Triggerfish was located, Inkopolis city, and a distant mountain, making for breath taking scenery.

Aenon chuckled when he kept hearing Coral gasp in amazement. "I guess your kind doesn't really get to see this kind of scenery doing those huge jumps, do you?"

"Never like this. I'll be sure to remember this view always!"

Eventually they reached the outskirts of Inkopolis, where Coral was able to guide Aenon to a suitable hiding spot for the suit. When they disembarked, Aenon opened the power cell hatch and petted Voltare. "Did you want to come with us into the city, little buddy? Or did you want to stay here?"

Voltare motioned that he wanted to stay put. While Inkopolis used to be his home, he was comfortable where he was and didn't want to hamper Aenon's tour.

Coral giggled as Aenon closed the power hatch. "Looks like a regular love-nest in there."

"Wanted to make sure he was comfortable while powering the suit. I try not to be heartless."

"I never doubted that. I just find it mildly amusing." All that got was an indignant huff. "Anyways, we're burning daylight hours, so let's get this tour started!"

The first thing that was apparent to Aenon was that the city was fairly similar to a human metropolis, right down to some of the apartments and other building types looking exactly the same. It was getting a little insane how similar Inklings were to modern human society despite being wiped off the earth long before the squids ever became land dwellers.

He did notice that while many things were similar, he did not plenty of thematical differences in their architecture. It had more of a sea-life theme to them than human buildings did, making them appear more animated. This was most apparent when they reached a section of the city called Inkopolis Square.

Aenon had seen other Inklings in passing, but here he was able to get a proper look. Here, there were many different Inklings mingling about, with some of them being slightly shorter than Coral and others almost as tall as him. Coral giggled as they entered the square. "Looks like we're just in time for the bi-hourly announcement!"

Aenon was about to question her when the big screen on the tower he saw during his night flight suddenly played music and switched to a duo of individuals.

"Ya'll know what time it is!"

"It's Off the Hook, coming at you LIVE from Inkopolis Square!"

Aenon raised an eyebrow. The smaller squid looked like she was a rich rapper while the other one… didn't look anything like a squid at all. If anything, her tentacle hair made her out being more like an octopus.

"The smaller one is Pearl and the taller one is Marina. They form their little outfit called Off the Hook and create many fresh beats and lyrics."

Pearl raised her hand after a transition. "Check it! Here are the current Regular Battle stages!"

Marina played a disc on her turn-table like she was a DJ the screen behind them flashed a picture showing none other than Camp Triggerfish. She does it again and it shows a location Aenon has yet to see: Musselforge Fitness.

Pearl spoke again, "The jellies here can climb the rock walls faster than I can. What's with that?"

"Well, those jellyfish DO probably have a couple of inches on you…"

Marina's remark got a snicker out of Aenon before he recomposed himself. _I guess jellyfish are also land dwellers as well now._

After showing the stages for a ranked mode and a league mode, with various quips between the co-stars, they signed off with their catchphrase: "Don't get cooked… Stay off the hook!"

"Hold on, you said they do this bi-hourly. Doesn't that get a little repetitive?"

Coral thought about it for a moment. "There are breaks during the day. The first announcements happen at 8 and 10 Am before breaking for lunch, then from 2 to 8Pm is the rest of the rotations before they sign off for the night."

"So, six announcements in a day. Have to wonder if they don't find it annoying."

"Eh, that's their job. Anyways, while those two are the freshest people to see, there are plenty of other things to see in the Square. Best place to start…" She drags Aenon towards a yellow truck stall. "Is Crusty Sean's food stall!"

The one behind the window, a prawn dressed up like tempura, noticed the duo approaching and have a wave. "What's kraken, squiddos? Coral, weren't you here yesterday with that big order?"

"I was, but I figured I would cut loose today and visit you again!" Motioning to Aenon she adds, "I was giving my friend a tour of this place since he's never been here before and figured you were a great first stop since lunch is around the corner."

Sean chuckled. "I'm guessing he's the one who you mentioned hadn't tried my food at all before yesterday. How was it?"

Aenon smiled under the mask as he nodded. "All I can say is deep-fried heaven!"

"Glad to hear it! You know what? Since you're visiting Inkopolis Square for the first time, how about a two-for-one deal on a pair of crusty seanwiches?"

Coral gave Sean a surprised look. "You're giving more to us for free? What about your business?"

"Don't worry your kicks, squiddo. I've been more than meeting my quota for profits lately, so I figure that a few freebies here and there wouldn't hurt. Besides, you're hardly the first Inklings to get some good deals."

"If you say so, Sean."

After re-experiencing deep-fried heaven, Coral showed the shops around the square. There, Aenon met Bisk the spider crab running Shella Fresh, Jelfonzo the jellyfish running Ye Olde Cloth Shoppe, and Flow the rather humanoid sea slug running Headspace.

Of the three shop keepers, Aenon found Jelfonzo the most humorous due to his dialect sounding like he's straight from Shakespeare. However, he was able to thank all three of them for making his clothing articles.

The last shop was Ammo Knights, run by Sheldon the horseshoe crab. Aenon remembered that Marie contacted him in regards to upgrading and procuring weaponry for Coral in Octo Canyon. He also got the distinct feeling that his disguise wasn't overly fooling Sheldon, but the shop keeper made no moves to show it.

Aenon was amazed by how diverse the weapons looked but decided not to look for too long. Coral quickly agreed while whispering, "He goes on tangents about weapons he feels you're fresh enough to use. It's pretty long winded, so I'd be best if we leave before that happens." When they exited Ammo Knights, Aenon stopped dead in his tracks at what he saw.

There, laying on a bench, was Judd, the cat that was put into the prototype cryo-stasis pod. He also had a kitten that looked similar to him sitting on his belly.

Aenon approached the cat with widened eyes. Judd, thinking it was another Inkling looking for some advice, merely kept his eyes closed as the kitten looked up. "Meow! (Do you have any ability chunks yet? When you scrub gear or reallocate abilities, the original abilities become ability chunks. Ability chunks don't do much by themselves, but you can combine them to make abilities on demand! And keep an eye for the young urchin lad. He knows just what to do with ability chunks!)

Aenon was amazed at how he could understand the kitten but chalked it up to the Inkling language being more inclusive of animal languages. Shaking his head slightly, he looks back at Judd. "Judd… is that you?"

The cat's eyes sprang open when he heard the human's voice. "(I haven't heard that voice in over 2,000 years… a voice I thought I would never hear again.)" Looking up, he saw the human's disguised face and immediately knew who it was. "(Aenon?)"

"Long time no see, Juddorick."

Aenon barely had time to react when the cat suddenly pounced into his arms. "(I can't believe it! You're alive! How have you survived for this long, yet look like you've barely aged a day?)"

"The same way you managed to survive the end of humanity."

Judd frowned at that. "(I'd rather not remember that)."

"(Daddy, who is this?)" The kitten spoke up in a confused tone, his head tilted sideways. Aenon forced down the incredible urge to cuddle him as he put Judd back down.

Coral also looked baffled. "Wait, you two know each other?"

"Know each other? We were practically family before Judd was put in cryo-stasis."

"(Aenon gives the best hugs and cuddles, I'll have you know!)" Judd settled down with a small huff. "(Though I'd rather not bring up the whole cryo-stasis situation…)"

Both Aenon and Aquarius could tell from his tone he sounds bitter about something. "I hate to ask, but why? Not only was that the reason why we both survived, but your owner-"

"(My owner can suck a cat trap for all I care. The way I see it, I was just a testing animal to make sure the cryo-pod would actually work.)"

The kitten shook his head sadly. "(You never want to let go of that, daddy.)"

Aenon was deeply saddened by Judd's words. He remembered how torn up his owner was when he put his beloved cat into cryo-stasis. Aquarius apparently felt the same way because he said, "I'm sending a memo to your headset that I found in my databank that was written the day Juddorick was put into stasis. Perhaps he can find closure with this."

Aenon quickly read the memo before shaking his head. "Is that how you truly feel, Judd? That your doting owner simply wanted you as a test subject?"

"(Of course! Why else would he keep me around the lab when normally I shouldn't be-)"

Aenon cut Judd off by reading the memo. "Oh, my beloved Judd... It seems the day has finally come. This **prototype cryo-stasis** capsule is designed to remain cryogenically sealed for 10,000 years. Good-bye, my purrfect little kitty cat. May your meows echo through the ages **and may the future be kind to you..."** Putting away the memo he added, "He used a super prototype of what would be used to save my life. He really did care about you."

Judd had no words to say after hearing what his owner wrote on the day of his encapsulation. He never realized just how heartbreaking it was for him to seal one of his own family members away in such short notice. He could have very easily sealed himself away instead, but he chose his cat instead.

Judd closed his eyes for a bit as he looked like he was fighting back tears. Coral couldn't hold hers back upon hearing just how much Judd's owner loved his cat; it broke her heart and reminded her all too much the pain of losing contact with her own big sister after a bad falling out with her.

Marie was watching nearby and was happy that Aenon could help dispel the rage that festered in Judd's heart. There were plenty of times when he was incredibly snarky towards Inklings who asked the most innocent of questions back during his time in Inkopolis Plaza.

After a few minutes, Judd reopened his eyes and nodded at Aenon. "(Thank you for dispelling the animosity in my heart. I just wish… I could take all the hurtful things I've thought about him back… and now he's gone forever…)" He and the kitten let out sorrowful meows

Aenon sighed as he opened his pendant once again. "Remember this, Judd. Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it."

"(That is truer than we all think.)" shaking his head, he motions to the kitten. "(I forgot to introduce my son to you. His name is Lil'judd.)"

"(Happy to make acquaintance with a friend of dad's!)" Aenon started scratching behind his ears and he started purring. "(This feels so good…)"

Coral gave Aenon a baffled look. "What are you even doing?"

"Scratching Lil'judd behind his ear? Cats love it when you do that, though it might be only because humans are a lot more solid than Inklings."

Judd nods at those words. "(Yup. Inklings in the past tried to scratch behind my ears, but it never felt quite the same as a human doing it.)"

That got an eye-roll from Coral. "Whatever you guys say." She suddenly got a bright idea. "Hey, Aenon! Why don't we end your tour by spectating the main sport of Inklings?"

Judd widened his eyes. "(That would be purrfect. In fact, the lunch break should be over soon, so we should get back to judging matches and the like. In fact, I have an idea.)"

Going into the tower that had the "Joey Asoia" text on it, Coral swiped a card at the receptionist and stated that she wanted to participate in a turf war when they reopen. Judd took Aenon and Lil'judd to a room where he can spectate maps himself and declare who is the winner. He allowed Aenon in as a special favor but warned him that he'll have to spectate the normal way after this, else other Inklings will start expecting the same.

Aenon was astounded and excited watching the turf war matches that Coral played in. He saw one such match during his first day awake, but thought it was a violent sport that 'painted' Inklings as savages. Now that he was able to spectate these matches proper, he can see how fun they are.

So much so that he started feeling the pangs of loneliness again. He would never be able to enjoy such a sport unless he somehow became an Inkling himself. Sure, he can contribute to their society should he move in, but he couldn't help feeling like he was missing out on a big part of their culture.

Coral had gone in for two 3-minute matches. One was ruled in her favor as a very close game, only 5 points of turf coverage decided it, while the other was a crushing defeat for her. Judd made a comment that both scenarios happen more than you'd expect.

When it became apparent that Coral stopped at two matches, Aenon decided to take his leave as well. Judd managed to grab his attention before he left. "(Don't feel like you're alone in this new world. Inklings may be a new civilization, but I'm purrty sure they'll accept you for who you are regardless. Besides, I'll always be here as well.)"

"Thanks, Judd. Guess I'll CAT-ch ya later!" Judd laughed at that as Aenon left the room and met Coral outside of the tower. "Guess you broke even today, huh?"

"Yeah. The only bad thing about turf wars is that, more often than not, it gets decided within the last 30 seconds of a match. It's frustrating when you have such a commanding lead for most of the match, only to fall apart at the most vital point."

"Might be a case of complacency settling in, but it could happen for a number of reasons." Aenon looks around for a bit and spies the Off the Hook duo in a nearby window. "There's something I want to comment on, but not here."

"Sure. It's probably high time we get back to Neptune. I doubt Voltare can wait too much longer."

Aquarius chose then to speak up. "Actually, the zapfish is currently sleeping. I still think that den you made him is too comfortable."

Aenon chuckled, much to Coral's confusion. "I don't think we have to worry about Voltare."

"If you say so." When they got close to where Neptune was hiding, she asked, "So what were you about to comment on?"

Aenon had to think for a moment before remembering it. "Marina looks pretty different from Inklings, doesn't she?"

Coral gave him a flat look. "You calling her out for being exotic?"

"Exotic might be a pretty correct term. Didn't you notice her hair?" When all he got was a blank stare he facepalmed. "Do I need to spell it out for you? Her hair tentacles are octopus tentacles, not squid tentacles."

It took a few moments for Coral to process that before she widened her eyes. "She's actually an Octoling? I thought all of the Octarians were hostile to the Inklings."

Aquarius hummed in Aenon's ear. "I'm guessing Octarian is just a blanket term for every single kind of octopus in that society."

Coral had adopted a thoughtful look. "I wonder if that means not all Octarians are hostile…"


	6. Chapter 5

"So that's how getting splatted in ink battles work…"

It was early morning after Aenon's tour and Aquarius insisted on looking over some more data that the headset managed to pick up. He was munching on an apple he was able to procure before heading back to the submarine yesterday; he made sure to show Coral where he was getting his fruit and she confirmed that it was wild fruit.

Aquarius hummed as he went over the data with Aenon. "When an inkling gets hit with too many ink bullets of a different color or stands in enemy ink for too long, their own ink gets violently displaced which is what causes them to explode in ink of the opposite color."

"The data suggests that it isn't overly painful to the inklings; they feel more pain from getting hit with the ink in the first place. Guess it makes weapons that splat in one hit more of a painless death than anything." Aenon shuddered. "Still can't imagine going through that, though…"

"They probably don't think about it too much since it's part of their life style."

Aenon merely shook his head before checking up on Voltare, who gave a happy warble. The zapfish was resting after his hearty meal of fruits and berries. Aenon was beginning to lose his taste for fruit due to how much of it he's been eating recently.

Deciding to wear the clothes he got yesterday from Coral and Marie, he decided to head out early just to see if he couldn't do anything to help the two Inklings in their mission to save all of the zapfish. He was still amazed Voltare was willing to power Neptune, but had grown to mostly accept it at this point in time.

When he landed in front of the Cuttlefish Cabin, he noted how tired Marie looked. Disembarking, he asks, "Are you okay? You look like you didn't sleep at all."

"I'm fine. Us Inklings aren't exactly *yawn* early risers. I'm up early because I want to keep tabs on Octarian movement." She motions towards the cabin and the electronics inside.

"Speaking of Octarians, I discovered they have a sub-species that look very similar to you Inklings."

Marie had to think for a moment before realizing what he meant. "You mean the octolings? Yeah, their existence makes me wonder if there's an alternate world where the Great Turf War never happened. Sadly, they will be our enemies as well here in Octo Valley."

Aenon lets out a sad sigh. "It's soul crushing to think there's no other way about this."

"Yeah, but we can't worry about the 'what ifs' of the scenario. While we wait for Agent 4, why don't we get more familiar with the tech out here?"

It didn't take long before Aenon was able to synch his headset and Neptune's communication systems with that of Marie's and Coral's. Coral had arrived during that time, so she went off to one of the kettles in Suction-Cup lookout. She had just entered one when Aenon came online. "So, this is an Octarian kettle? Looks like another world…"

Marie nodded at him. "Yeah. While these domes are underground, they at least tried to simulate what it's like to live above ground. Why they went that far for a military base… probably for moral." She notices what's in front of Coral. "Looks like Inkfurlers."

Aenon noted the rolls. "I guess they unfurl when you hit them."

"That's correct Aenon."

Both Marie and Aenon jumped when they heard Sheldon speak. "Gah, how did you know it was-"

"It was pretty easy. I knew you weren't an Inkling based on how your voice didn't sound like one. If I had to hazard a guess, you're a human, aren't you?"

Aenon sighed. "And after I was trying so hard not to be discovered."

Coral giggled as she went along across an inkfurler. "That's Sheldon for you; observant almost to a fault."

Sheldon chuckled at that statement. "I have to be to make weapons that aren't cheap or unbalanced for ink battles."

"Touché. Thanks for not ratting me out yesterday."

"No problem. Thanks for the visit!"

As Coral went along, Aenon started pointing out some details that Marie and even Sheldon missed. Sometimes all it resulted in was a bunch of power eggs, but one time it resulted in her finding a hidden crate containing another piece of sardinium.

Aquarius, fully aware everyone could hear him now, was baffled. "What kind of material IS sardinium? I have no records of such a metal."

"I don't know, but it's a great material for upgrading weapons, especially here in Octo Canyon."

Coral hummed as she put the piece away. "Perhaps you can ascertain what it is after I get back. My own curiosity was piqued when even our resident human and his A.I. companion doesn't know what it is."

Marie giggled. "Mine was as well. Focus on the mission at hand first."

After saving the zapfish from a lightbulb-like prison, Coral quickly returned to Tentakeel Outpost to let Aquarius scan the sardinium as well as unlock the ability to use curling bombs. "Hmm, I'm somehow not surprised based on what Sheldon uses them for. This is a nickel-cobalt ingot shaped like a fish; great for modifications and increasing resistance to heat."

Sheldon hummed thoughtfully. "Huh, the more you know. It did allow for a faster firing rate for Agent 4's hero shot and, well, faster firing means faster heat generation."

"You upgraded that stick?" Aenon could still remember the pea shooter Coral tried to shoot Neptune with; it barely looked like a gun. Now it looks like an actual gun with an orange paintjob.

Marie let out a small sigh. "Yeah, that 'stick' was the only thing I could get on short notice. It's the same power as a regular splattershot, but fired as fast as a .52 gal…"

Coral shrugged as she prepared to super jump again. "Hey, I got it upgraded and that's all that matters."

When she entered the next kettle, Sheldon wanted her to use the hero roller. Aenon was about to comment on how ludicrous of an idea that was, but then remembered that ink probably acted like a thinner paint. Sure enough, Coral was flinging ink around with the roller both vertically and horizontally, as well as rolling with it.

Because she was knocking out kettles far faster thanks to less time searching for sardinium and the sunken scrolls thanks to Aenon, Coral decided to do more kettles than she normally does. The next kettle after the roller one was the hero dualies.

Aenon keenly noted the ride rails. "Those look dangerous."

Marie giggled. "They might, but Agent 4's shoes stick on them pretty nicely. The only risk of falling she has is if she jumped at the wrong time on a curve."

Up until Coral entered a fourth kettle, Aenon failed to see how any of them could be classified as military bases. This kettle quickly changed his tune, especially with Coral having to navigate around giant missile-like octozeppelins with a hero charger, the Inkling's version of a sniper rifle. The grapplinks baffled Aquarius on how they worked.

When she reached a platform with a huge line of smaller octomissiles being fired at once, Aenon stopped her before she headed onto the super-jump pad. "I spied an ink grind rail under that platform. Try seeing where it leads before moving forward."

Sure enough, there was a sunken scroll hidden beyond the rail. Marie tutted a little. "That's a mean spot to hide something. Clever, very clever…"

While Coral was trying to maneuver around some more octomissiles while using fan-powered platforms, she misjudged the platform's speed and got shoved off into the abyss. Aenon let out a cry of despair, but Marie only facepalmed. "There goes one life…"

"Wait what?" Aenon quickly saw that Coral had respawned. "Oh… right, I forgot you guys can do that."

Sheldon chuckled. "I don't blame you; a lot of us thought the same thing seeing ink battles for the first time. The only thing with these particular respawners is that they don't get any power from the zapfish, meaning they can only respawn you three times before powering down."

Coral shook herself off. "Yeah I don't think I need that many tries. I just got careless with that one spot."

"I-if you say so…" It still shook Aenon just how sudden and spontaneous her death was. It got a concerned look from Marie, remembering that humans never built anything like respawners; for all his life, Aenon thought one life was all you got.

Like Coral stated, she didn't need anymore lives and quickly maneuvered around to get the third-last zapfish of Suction-Cup Outlook. When she approached the last kettle before the boss kettle, Marie stopped her. "I should warn you, Agent 4, that I'm picking up a slew of mixed signals from that kettle."

"If that's the case, pick any of the four weapons I've already given you. You'll need to be prepared for anything." As soon as Sheldon said that, Coral picked up the hero dualies.

"Because they are underground, I cannot distinguish any unique signals without somebody or some sort of transponder down there." Aquarius let out an irritated sigh. He should be able to more easily identify them, but he can't and it frustrates him.

"So, expect anything? No rest for the wicked, I suppose." Coral braced herself for what's to come before going down the kettle.

What she got was something she didn't see coming. She landed in an upscaled version of The Reef in Inkopolis, something that Marie partially expected due to previous experiences. What nobody expected was the sounds coming from the main area; it sounded like there was a large-scale ink fight already going on.

Coral wasn't expecting to have her ink color changed too. All of the kettles she had gone to let her keep her default ink color of yellow, yet this kettle forced her color to green.

"Cod damnit all! We're losing ground!" Everyone jumped when an Octoling with green tentacles and what looked like a commander's hat was walking backwards towards the respawn point. "If this keeps up, we won't be able to return with our lives, much less get those zapfish!"

"When did Octolings want to take back zapfish from THEMSELVES?" Marie couldn't figure it out. The best she could come up with was that either there was some sort of rebellion or the Octolings couldn't agree on how to distribute the zapfish.

Coral immediately remembered about Marina and if there were friendly Octolings. Plus, with both of them sharing the same ink color, she wanted to give them a chance. "Hey, what's going on?"

The Octoling whipped around in a defensive stance when she heard someone talking. "Who's there?!" Upon seeing Coral, her eyes widened. "An Inkling here of all places? Wait… aren't you Agent 4, whom we heard raiding the kettles to take back zapfish?"

"Y-yes… why?"

"Thank the stars above. My name is Commander Perch and I'm leading a resistance force determined to return the zapfish back to Inkopolis." Perch saluted before she was interrupted by a transmission.

Aenon was partially glad that not all Octarians were hostile. On the other hand, it saddened him that there was such fragmentation in their society to cause something like this. Marie continued to be baffled. "Why are they fighting to return the zapfish to us? I get that none of them are being used in civilian kettles, but…"

Perch got off her headset with a pleading look. "Agent 4, I know this is sudden, but I don't have time to explain. I need your help rescuing my squads from overwhelming enemy fire and retrieving the mini zapfish dotted around the area. You're the only help we'll be able to get…"

Coral didn't need much convincing. "I'm on it! Your troops will get the support they need!"

Aquarius thought ahead. Now that Coral was in the kettle, he could clearly scan the surrounding areas through the phone that was on her hero suit. "Agent 4, I'm sending you a real-time map of the area and locked onto the transponders that are similar to Commander Perch's. Check your mobile device and plan your path accordingly."

Coral looked at her phone and, sure enough, it is now showing a detailed map of the area, as well as ten groups of 4 green dots. She can also see how much the map was changing with the ground being covered by green and purple ink, showing that there were ink fights still going on.

She decided to make for the nearest group and dove into the green ink, with Perch following close by. When the duo arrived, Coral saw 4 different Octolings, one of them being a male Octoling, firing at a squad of purple-tentacle Octolings with weird goggles on. Behind the hostile Octolings was a mini-zapfish, which Marie pointed out as having one-eighth the power output of a normal zapfish.

Coral wasted no time in throwing a splat bomb at the hostiles and forcing them to scatter. It gave her allies enough time to open fire and splat a few of them before Coral dove in with her dualies to finish off the last few, securing the first mini-zapfish.

One of the Octolings let out an ecstatic veemo. "Thank you, Agent 4. We would have been goners if you haven't shown up."

"Save your thanks for when everyone is safe. The fight is won, but the battle isn't over!" They all nod at Coral's words and scattered to support their other squads.

Perch was especially relieved. "I'm willing to bet that they will retreat if we reclaim all 8 of the mini zapfish. Their containers will be shooting light into the sky, so cross-reference your map to make sure you aren't following a dead end."

Coral managed to rescue 2 more mini-zapfish thanks to guidance from her quad mission control, alongside the squads trying to save them. When she went to the next area, she found out that it wasn't friendly Octolings fighting to get at a location. They were cornered by hostiles and fighting desperately to save their lives.

Luckily for them, Coral and a few other Octolings got the jump on the oppressing Octopodes, though not before one of her allies got splatted. Coral was saddened, but the others encouraged her to fight on, even giving her the piece of sardinium they were guarding as thanks. Everyone assumed the sunken scroll will be earned in a similar fashion

Coral almost got splatted herself a few times when she moved to save other squads from their fate. Thankfully, her hero suit acted as its own layer of armor, though if it breaks, she's surrounded by a red aura that slows her down considerably and makes her bubble in the ink. It regenerates after a short time, but she knew that she couldn't take much more punishment if her outer layer breaks. She did find other armor pieces hidden in the area to increase her survivability.

What made things worse was, despite friendlies from other squads joining their companions, the number of hostiles present as Coral went forward seemed to increase as she saved each mini-zapfish. There were times that she couldn't move around much due to how much ink fire was heading her way, though her situation improved when she remembered that she can use curling bombs as well; their trails of ink proved an invaluable mobility tool.

During the whole thing, Coral's mission control was on the edge of their seats as they tried their best to support her. Aenon especially was close to start tearing his hair out. "Gah! Why do I feel so useless in this? Isn't there anything more I can do to help?"

Sheldon sounded despondent as he said, "The only person here who can help Agent 4 directly is Marie, since the rest of us can't shoot ink."

Marie sighed. "And there's no telling what would happen if I tried to go out and support her."

Aenon shot a quick look at Neptune as Voltare let out despondent cries at Coral's situation. Before, he balked at the thought of giving the suit weaponry, but now that the stakes were getting far higher than before, he began pedaling backwards on his stance against ink weapons in particular. However, he couldn't afford to give it much thought at the moment; Coral needed his help right now.

Coral was getting worn down as she reached the ninth squad in need of help. The exponential enemy density as well as the blown-up proportions of The Reef was getting to her. "Maybe… I should have… tried unlocking… autobombs…"

"They would have been extremely useful, as their ability to track and follow targets before exploding would serve you better than splat bombs in this scenario." Sheldon lets out a sad sigh. "Even I didn't foresee this much resistance."

"This is my fault." Aquarius spoke up, startling everyone. "If I could have scanned the kettle better before entry, then we would have known just how many enemies would be in this kettle. If only my scanners were stronger than this…"

"Your scanners weren't the only ones that couldn't pick this situation up." Marie lowered her head with her eyes squeezed shut. "All mine was picking up were scrambled signals that I couldn't make heads or tails of. However, beating ourselves up over this won't help." Double checking the map, she noticed something. "Agent 4! There's an alternate route that'll lead you behind that platoon of enemy Octolings. Use that to gain the upper hand!"

Coral looked at Perch with a concerned look, who nodded and motioned for her to go before loading her octo-shot and firing over her cover. Coral didn't waste any time circumventing the last two groups of enemies and causing confusion in their ranks, allowing the final two mini-zapfish to be rescued. There was much rejoicing amongst the friendly Octolings.

Perch didn't look so upbeat. "Status update on our numbers!"

The silence that followed was deafening until an Octoling boy with a mohawk-like style stepped forward with a dour look. "We lost approximately 50% of our forces here, Commander. Of our original number, only 35 of us remain…"

Perch looked down in dismay. "So many lives lost…"

Coral look like she was close to tears as she let out a sad woomy. "If… if only I had known about this… I would have come here sooner and saved more of you…"

"Agent 4, you have already saved everyone's lives here. There's no point in lingering on the what-ifs; that you managed to save anyone in that inkbath is an achievement all its own and for that, I thank you." Every single Octoling saluted Coral.

It did make Coral feel a bit better, but she still retained some guilt. She knew it was inevitable though; war was tragedy no matter what angle you look at it. How many children have to mourn their parents? How many parents have to live with outliving their own children?

Perch shook her head. "Let us quit this place. All its become is a monument to tragedy. I know that you've got an outpost or something akin to that somewhere in Octo Canyon where you're currently keeping the other zapfish. Let us retire there and I can tell our side of the story."


	7. Chapter 6

Aenon and Marie waited outside of the Cuttlefish Cabin for Coral and her Octoling entourage to arrive. They agreed that hiding Aenon's existence as a human from them would be pointless since he hasn't really done much against the Octolings personally and that both wanted to trust the rebel Octolings; they didn't want this war going on any more than they do.

When all of the Octolings arrived, Aenon noted that some Octoling females had hair-tentacles that had more volume, while others held less volume and looked more delicate. The males seemed to have either something akin either to a mohawk or an afro. The male to female ratio also looked pretty skewed; there was one male to every 4 females from his very quick observations.

Now that the situation wasn't serious, He also couldn't help thinking that the Octolings were pretty cute. _Come to think, the Inklings are pretty cute as well… though I question why I'm suddenly thinking this._

A lot of the Octolings expressed surprise at Aenon's existence and the presence of Neptune, but they didn't question it. Neptune looked ill-equipped to be fighting any ink battles to begin with.

Perch stepped forward once everyone was accounted for. "Well… guess it's time to tell you our side of the story. As I stated before, I'm Commander Perch, former general of the Octarian military."

Marie nodded at that. "I can understand the 'former' part, but what made you all rebel against Octavio? I never got the impression that Octarian society was overly fragmented even after he was imprisoned 2 years ago."

"I think we should start at the beginning, just so that we can avoid confusion. This will be a long story, so I'd recommend everyone get comfortable."

Once she saw everyone was buckled down to listen she closed her eyes to gather her thoughts. "It would be prudent to start at the very beginning, when DJ Octavio first launched his plan to steal all of the zapfish found in Inkopolis. At the time, our power supply was running dangerously short and everyone was fearful that our society would end if we ever ran out. When he announced that plan, everyone rallied behind him, thinking it would solve our energy crisis and allow us to rebuild what was lost in the Great Turf War.

"When the heist went without much cost, only losing one of our airborne vehicles in the process, the zapfish were divided evenly amongst the kettles of Octo Valley. However, concerns were rising over the use of zapfish in reactivating the great octoweapons. At the time, we were told it was to ensure everyone's protection, but we eventually found out that Octavio didn't steal the zapfish to help improve the standard of living, but solely to get revenge on the Inklings who forced us into that situation to begin with."

Marie closed her eyes before nodding. "I remember my grandfather stating that Octavio can hold a grudge for quite a long time, to the point of blinding him to everything else going on."

Perch let out a sigh at that. "Sadly, the rest of us got caught up in that revenge fever dream as well two years ago. However… well, you know about what was going on when Agent 3 started raiding our kettles to take back the zapfish. The overall conclusion to that was Octavio taking and using the great zapfish's power for his weapons platform that was operated like a DJ station. Between his failure to stop Agent 3 and you Squid Sisters singing your Calamari Inkantation, a lot of us began to lose faith and question if what we're doing was truly the right thing to do. Shell, plenty Octolings, including my little sister, vanished after that fateful day.

"I had a change of heart as well, but I decided to stay with the military and see if I couldn't convince Octavio to abandon his foolish quest for vengeance. I visited him when I could whenever he wasn't being watched in his snow globe; unable to break him out but still able to talk to him. Certainty he was still fuming over his loss in the beginning, but as time went on, he mellowed out and actually began regretting putting his people through that ordeal in the first place.

"Eventually, he told me that once he breaks out, he would move as many Octarians to Octo Canyon as possible, due to them 'supposedly' discovering an alternate energy source that can be used in place of zapfish, finally washing his hands of Inklings."

Marie widened her eyes in shock. She never would of thought that he would be remorseful of what he did. Not only that, but he was willing to leave Inkopolis alone? She couldn't believe it, especially with what was going on now.

Coral had managed to pick up on what was going on. "Did he have a sudden change of heart after his change of heart? If what you said is true, then it doesn't explain why he did this whole song and dance for a second time."

"You're a fine successor to Agent 3, Agent 4. Sadly, I'm in the dark as much as everyone else here. The last time I tried to visit him, his globe was smashed open by… something and he was gone. When I heard that he was refitting Octo Canyon to be an entirely militarized zone, I couldn't believe it. Yet… here we are. Octo Canyon, once an Octarian research complex, now turned into a military zone powered once again by stolen zapfish. Many of us questioned why he would do such a thing, but he called us all traitors and sentenced us to death. The rest… is history, as they say. I helped form the rebel movement and tried to take back the zapfish, with as much success as you expected and saw."

Aenon didn't know what to think now. Perch had no reason to lie about Octavio and she sounded genuinely truthful, yet he couldn't understand just why Octavio doesn't match up in behavior between what Marie told him with recent events and Perches time with him in Octo Valley. Was there a reason behind him going back on his word to Perch?

Perch shook her head. "This might be a bad time to ask but… is there anywhere these Octolings might be able to go to avoid this entire ordeal?"

This got surprised and shocked gasps from the crowd behind her, with a male Octoling, presumably her second-in-command, saying, "What are you trying to do, Commander Perch? We all agreed that we would help bring back the zapfish to Inkopolis and find out the truth together!"

"And look how many lives were lost when we attempted to do so ourselves. Were it not for Agent 4, none of us would be alive and talking about this." Perch let out a shuddering sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "I just… I want you guys to live a normal life, away from all this death and tragedy. You already did so much for me; I don't want you to throw away your lives."

Marie had been fighting with herself to suggest one thing, but her more compassionate side won out in the end. "Perhaps they can move to Inkopolis? Many Inklings only know of the Great Turf War in history lessons and many don't really seem to care who anyone is in the city. If you're willing to become an active member of the community, you'll have a place."

There were a lot of shocked eyes on Marie at that point, with one of the female Octolings asking in a soft voice, "You mean… we can go to Inkopolis and not worry about being discriminated as Octolings in an Inkling society?"

Aenon suddenly raised his finger as though he thought of something. "I recall there being an Octoling who managed to become a big deal over in Inkopolis square. None of the Inklings, including Agent 4 at the time, realize it. As such, you could pretend you're Inklings with unique hairstyles, seeing as how you guys can partake in ink battles as well."

Coral widened her eyes. "That… might actually work. The only downside is having so many of you guys moving to the city at a time."

"That happens a lot in Inkopolis, actually." Marie waved her hand around as if to brush it off. "Inklings tend to move to different cities and counties in large numbers, so all of the Octolings moving to Inkopolis at once wouldn't be too farfetched."

All of the Octolings exchanged worried looks before they all looked at Perch, who nodded. "This is my final order for you all: Go and live your life away from this war. I'll remain and try to rescue and evacuate as many others as I can find."

There was much hesitation, but one by one, all of the Octolings slowly left for Inkopolis. That last one to leave was Perch's male second-in-command, who saluted her before leaving as well. Aenon shot her a concerned look. "Are you sure you don't want to start a new life as well?"

Perch let out a sigh at that. "I've already forfeited my right to one, being a major player of the first zapfish heist and failing to keep Octavio on his more peaceful path. Many good Octolings died because I sent them to their deaths in the past and I want to spare as many as I can from the flames…"

"Then let it be so. I know all too well the pain of losing so many of your own kind, be it to the fires of war or to the cold, unforgiving hands of fate." Aenon closed his eyes as both Marie and Coral felt their hearts drop into their stomachs while Voltare let out a sad warble.

Perch looked at his face. "You too have lost much in life, yet you carry on in search of hope. I find that admirable and inspiring at the same time." Perch looked around before sighing. "I guess I'll just hang around here for the time being. I'm unable to super jump to Beaker's Depot to find any kettles were my kin fight for their lives until the protector of Suction-cup Outlook, the Octo Samurai, has fallen and his zapfish rescued."

Coral checked the time to make sure she was able to stay awake long enough to take on an octoboss. "I'll go and do it. Are you sure you okay with this, though?"

"I'll be fine. I think the Octo Samurai was more or less forced into his position, but wants to go out fighting a dual with an honorable opponent. He is the one who splats with honor, after all."

Coral nodded and super jumped away while Aenon beckoned Perch to inside the cabin. "I guess there's no sense in keeping you in the dark with what's going on. This is how we were able to help Agent 4 in her missions and why she was doing so well."

Perch looked at the equipment and shook her head in amusement. "I guess having a mission control helps you a lot when navigating hostile territory."

"It also helps to have a weapons expert helping you as well." Marie gave her a spare headset and synched it with their systems. "I'd like to introduce you to Sheldon."

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Commander Perch." Sheldon's enthusiastic voice spoke up.

"Just Perch will be fine, Sheldon. I digress, you made those impressive weapons Agent 4 uses?"

"Well, they're technically for battle data so that I can perfect future weapons development. Speaking of data, Agent 4, are you tuned in as well?"

"Loud and clear, Sheldon." Coral's enthusiastic voice spoke up. "I just reached the boss kettle."

"Perfect. I want more data on the hero roller, so could I burden you to use it a bit here?"

Coral was a little hesitant. The roller wasn't exactly a weapon she was the best with due to it being a closer ranged weapon, despite priding herself as a squid-of-all-trades when it comes to weapon classes. She decided that, since Sheldon was giving her an arsenal to work with, she agreed to it and equipped the hero roller before diving down.

When she landed on the spawn point above the arena, both she and Perch knew something was off. Perch vocalized what Coral was thinking. "Where's the ink that the Octo Samurai would hide in to grab the zapfish for his weapon? Where's the zapfish, for that matter?"

Coral took the super jump pad to the arena and took a few tentative steps forward. A large bang that was followed by a furious roar rocked the entire kettle, putting everyone on edge. She took a few more steps forward and was suddenly greeted by a large Octarian bursting through the underground walls of the kettle.

This Octarian looked incredibly jacked-up… and incredibly enraged as well.

 **Octo Berserker**

 _Mercy not included_

The Berserker barely gave Coral time to react as he suddenly leaped at her with great speed. She let out a small scream as she fired off a curling bomb and swam behind it to get out of the way before turning around and attacking the Octarian with her roller. He attempted to swat the Inkling away, but she was able to avoid it and another leap as she dealt more damage.

When it looked like he would get splatted, the machine on the Berserker's back and shoulder suddenly fired up and he increased slightly in size, removing all of Coral's yellow ink in the process. Marie looked offended. "He should not be allowed to do that! What's going on here?!"

Everyone let out a cry when the Berserker faked Coral out and managed to splat her in one hit, right through her hero suit. She respawned with a scared look and super jumped back to the arena, only to almost get splatted immediately after landing. Perch was becoming incensed over how unfair he was fighting. "Why is he here instead of his brother?! This is unfair, even by OCTAVIO'S standards!"

Aenon thought the device on his back looked familiar, but quickly shoved the thought out of his mind when Coral almost got a splat on the Berserker again, only for the same thing to happen. However, the Berserker suddenly leaped at the respawner platform and destroyed it.

Coral only had one life left… and now she's running for her life, tears of fear streaming down her face as the boss refused to leave her alone. Marie, Perch, and Sheldon all felt powerless to save her.

Aenon, on the other hand, was having none of it. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH! I'm tired of sitting back while she risks her life for us!" Running outside with Voltare, who was also pretty riled up, he headed for Neptune who was parked nearby.

Marie wanted to stop him but Perch restrained her, much to Sheldon's confusion. "This is no time for secrecy, Squid Sister. This is a true matter of life and death." Watching Neptune take off towards Suction-cup Outlook, she contacts Aenon. "There should be a way in for solid matter through the kettle. If you find a handle, pull it and you should be able to get in!"

Coral was now cornered. Covered in Octarian ink due to how much the Berserker was suddenly flinging around and out of ink herself, she could only watch helplessly as the boss winded up the blow that would end her life. "I'm sorry… everyone…"

The Berserker let out a feral roar as he went for the punch… only to be suddenly punched in the face by Neptune. "You leave her alone, you monster!"

"A-Aenon!" The suit looked barely big enough to match the current size of the berserker, yet the boss recoiled incredibly far back like he got hit by a fast-moving wall. "What are you doing here?!"

Aenon ran over to Coral and knelt down to pick her up gently to put her back on her feet, clearly enraged himself. "To save you, you idiot! If this creature refuses to die to your ink, then he'll die to my TITAINIUM FIST!"

Turning around, he launched himself at the Berserker, though this time the boss was ready and exchanged blows. Aenon was quick to follow up with a knee to the gut before comboing into a series of punches and kicks. Despite taking few lessons in martial arts before humanity's end, he knew enough from human Voltare to defend himself in a fight.

Sheldon couldn't believe what he was seeing through Coral's feed. "Is that… a mechanized suit? I've never seen anything like it!"

Aquarius, who was silent for a long time, decided to speak up. "The Mark I Environmental Exo-suit, code-named Neptune, is a prototype suit designed for exploration in hostile environments. This is possible thanks to the hyper-advanced hydraulic systems allowing for one-to-one movement with it's pilot, it's armor that is made with a grade 9 cobalt-titanium alloy designed for withstanding incredible punishment and extreme temperatures, and is modular in nature allowing for customization for whatever the pilot's needs are."

"Wow… I can't believe that a piece of human technology is still functional even today! Even a prototype looks magnificent!" Marie was worried that Sheldon would start freaking out over Neptune. Looks like they had no other choice if Agent 4 was to see another day.

Perch was elated that they had something that could match up to the Berserker. "That's just the ticket needed to turn the tide of battle in our favor! Go for it, Aenon!"

Coral managed to recover enough ink to give herself some breathing room before heading after the Berserker again. The boss seemingly ignored all of her roller flicks until she almost splatted him in a third attempt but he suddenly became larger, removed all of her yellow ink, and jumped away from Neptune to make a mad dash towards the Inkling.

"The creature is enraged beyond seeing straight. Might I suggest throwing his balance off with your grappling hook?" Aenon forgot all about the suit's grappling hook until Aquarius brought it up. He managed to quickly shoot the three-pronged claw at the Berserker's leg and used it to trip the boss into faceplanting, stunning and shrinking him.

When that happened, a small metal dome opened up on the device on the Octarian's back. There, inside a glass dome, was an energy cell containing a lighter-colored zapfish, clearly scared out of its wits. Voltare, upon seeing the zapfish, became utterly furious and began powering Neptune with even more fervor. Aquarius was quick to pick this up. "I'm assuming that the zapfish powering that device is Voltare's mate, hence the increased aggression from your zapfish."

"Like we needed anymore reason to save her!" Aenon quickly realized that he couldn't punch the glass open. He might do it too hard and crush Voltare's mate in the process. Additionally, he saw power clamps keeping a firm hold on the Octarian, making the option of pulling the device off obsolete.

Coral saw an opportunity and, after inking her way up to the glass dome, started bashing the glass with her roller. When it suddenly started cracking, the Berserker recovered and let out a savage bellow that removed all of the ink on the arena, forcing Coral to super jump away and Aenon to take to the air.

-GLASS INTEGRITY AT 67%

Aenon grinned when he heard Neptune's system state that. "Looks like it's a good thing you had that roller after all. Two more rounds of that and I can extract the zapfish cell!" He saw the boss suddenly leap up AT him, forcing him to quickly maneuver around. "Whoa!"

Despite having the mind of a feral beast, the Berserker had managed to change tactics to try and get at Neptune by leaping from the cavern walls constantly. Perch was quick to pick up on this. "Despite Agent 4 causing damage to that glass protecting the zapfish, the Octarian sees Neptune as the much larger threat despite being blinded by rage and is focusing solely on the suit. Looks like you're going to be taking all of the punishment now, Aenon!"

"That's fine with me! My armor can take his punishment and deal out just as much!" Aenon managed to interrupt the Berserker's leaping with a round-house kick, sending him back onto the platform. Neptune quickly landed and went at the Berserker again and they got locked into grappling with each other.

Coral tried to fling her ink at the boss again, but every time she drew close, he stomped a wave of ink at her. The first time it happened, it instantly broke her armor, though the Octarian was too preoccupied with grappling to pursue. Sadly, this resulted in a stand-still in the battle, with no way of provoking the Berserker into a more enraged state to allow for toppling.

"I can't get close anymore! Even the vertical flicks aren't reaching him before he sends those waves at me and bombs get destroyed by them!" Saying Coral was incredibly frustrated was an understatement. Aenon was doing his best taking punishment in her stead, yet she was unable to take advantage of the openings he was allowing her.

It wasn't until a huge wave of yellow ink suddenly hit the boss away from Aenon. It came from an Octarian that was roughly the same size as Neptune, yet looked calmer and sleeker than the Berserker while carrying what looked like a giant, mechanized roller covered in yellow ink. "Stand your ground, mechanical beast!"

Perch realized who it was. "The Octo Samurai? But I thought…"

"We can get those answers later, Perch. Any help to finish this fight is welcome help!" Aenon quickly interrupted the Berserker rushing at the Samurai with a sucker punch. Due to the Berserker being able to only see one opponent at a time and only seeing the bigger enemies as the only threats, he quickly recovered from sucker punch and managed to shove the suit onto the ground and rushed Aenon as well.

This caused the Berserker to get caught in a loop between Neptune and the Samurai, with Coral standing a fair distance away, feeling helpless herself. "I can't even get close to that… what use am I anymore?"

"Don't sell yourself short, Agent 4." Marie was quick to reassure the younger Inkling. "Those two might be able to match that Octarian with raw strength and durability, but they can't risk damaging the zapfish's containment unit. They need your more delicate work to break that zapfish free from that glass dome."

Coral quickly berated herself for losing herself there and carefully watched for her next opportunity. Sure enough, the Berserker jumped away to make another dash, this time towards the Samurai. Aenon quickly toppled the hyper-enraged boss again with his grappling hook, allowing Coral to climb on top of the device and start smashing it again. It cracked even more before the boss let out another feral roar, forcing Coral and the Samurai to jump away while Aenon took to the air again.

-GLASS INTEGRITY AT 33%

The Samurai looked at Aenon. "Once the glass is gone, I'll distract him as you retrieve the zapfish. I'll deal the final blow myself."

Aenon was surprised. "Are you sure?! You are aware he is your-"

"I know who he is. Allowing me this is all I ask."

The Berserker leaped at the flying Aenon again. While he did dodge it, he quickly realized that the boss started prying rocks from the cavern walls and chucking them at the suit and the two still on the arena. This had the unfortunate effect of causing rocks to start falling off the celling.

"You guys need to finish him quickly, or you'll all get buried under the entirety of Suction-Cup Outlook!" Perch almost screeched that. She could not believe that one of her own kind was so feral and unhinged as to start bringing the entire outlook down on them, possibly killing anyone who has re-entered any of the other kettles.

Aenon didn't need telling twice. He managed to grab one of the rocks hurled at him and he managed to throw it right back at the Berserker. It hit its mark and the Berserker made another leap at Aenon, though when that missed, he started flinging more rocks around. This told the human that he needs to knock the boss onto the arena after a counter-throw, else Perch's warning will come true.

As such, Aenon grabbed a slightly smaller rock that he could pitch with more precision. Once again, the rock made its mark, but this time he was prepared for the counter-attack and managed to suplex the boss back onto the platform.

The Berserker quickly recovered and was about to leap away, but was quickly attacked by the Samurai and forced him to fight the battle on the arena.

After one last topple, Coral managed to completely shatter the glass dome, exposing the zapfish cell. The Samurai was quick to get the Berserker's attention and kept him locked in place. "Now!"

Aenon didn't need telling twice. He quickly landed on the boss' back and started pulling on the zapfish cell. It wasn't long after that the cell came loose from its slot, prompting him to quickly open up the cell and deposit the female zapfish into his power compartment, much to Voltare's unsurmountable joy.

The Berserker recoiled when the device lost all power, causing him to shrink down to a size slightly smaller than the Samurai. With pure rage still in his eyes, he made one final dash at his fellow Octarian, who had raised his weapon over his head and closed his eyes. "Mercy."

Bringing his roller down on the Berserker's head, he coated the entire arena in yellow ink from his death, ending the fight.

Aenon slowly came in for a landing as the Samurai started kneeling. "Forgive me, brother. I knew you were forever lost to me, so I made the only move I felt was necessary. May the seas of the sky allow you eternal rest…" Standing and turning to Aenon, he bowed respectfully. "My thanks for helping me end my brother's madness."

"I'm sorry it had to end this way…" Both Aenon and Coral felt horrible for forcing a brother to end a family member's life.

"It was the only way it could end. Do not despair, death was a mercy for him in the end, and I'd rather see him laid to rest rather than suffer as a mindless beast." Nodding at the duo the Samurai adds, "Both of you have shown great courage in fighting such a savage opponent. It has been an honor fighting at your side. While I may wash my hands of fighting for Octavio in his current state, I hope that we can have a proper, honorable duel the next time we meet. Until then, I bid you both farewell." He leaped off the platform and out of sight.

Aenon let out a sigh, still breathing heavily from the amount of fighting he was doing. If the Samurai was fine with how this fight ended, then all they could do was respect his wishes. However, there was something else he needed to do.

He exited his suit as Coral approached. "I'm glad you showed up when you di-" Coral cut herself off with a squeaky woomy when Aenon suddenly started hugging her. "Wha- Aenon, what are you doing?"

"You had me worried sick… I thought I was about to lose you, Coral. You and Marie were the first friends I ever made in this new world and it breaks my heart to think that I could have lost you if I was too slow…" Aenon was fighting back tears as he knew the salty water would be damaging to the Inkling, but he couldn't keep back his sobs.

Coral felt guilty for putting her friend through that entire ordeal. She thought she would have had an easy enough time against the octoboss like she did with the Octo Oven. She also never realized just how much anguish her runs through the kettles were causing him. All she could do was hug him back.

As they remained hugging, Coral became acutely aware of how… comforting it was to be hugging Aenon. It reminded her all too much of the hugs she used to get from her older sister.

"Okay you love birds, break it up." The duo squeaked in embarrassment when Marie spoke up in amusement. "Perhaps it's high time you two got out of there before anything bad can happen."

Coral and Aenon nodded at each other and went back to Neptune, with Coral once again riding inside the suit with Aenon, though not before the human took a long look at the device that used to be on the Berserker's back. When they got back to the cabin, they were greeted by Marie and Perch. "Glad you kids made it out alive. I still can't believe Octavio would resort to such measures to take out Agent 4."

"I still can't believe there's still working human tech in this world!" Sheldon spoke up excitedly over the radio, causing Marie to shake her head in pained acceptance. The pair of zapfish that were powering Neptune were too busy cuddling each other to really pay attention.

"Speaking of human tech…" Aenon suddenly had a dour look on his face. "I looked at the device that was causing that Octarian feral madness. That's not Octarian tech… that's human tech from before we wiped ourselves off the face of the planet."

All he got were shocked looks from everyone present. Perch slowly spoke up. "So then… could that mean that Octavio is somehow finding and using human tech to augment his armies?" She paused to think before shaking her head. "Perhaps the "energy source" this place discovered was human technology as well…"

Marie thought for a second before shaking her head as well. "Somehow I feel we're missing a bigger picture here, but the only way to find answers is from Octavio himself."

"Perhaps so… unless there's another force conspiring in the background of this conflict?"

Aenon let out a sigh as he rubbed his temples. "Regardless if Octavio is using human tech or not, I'm going to say one thing right here and now: I'm not going to sit on the sidelines any more than I have to!"

Marie figured as much; she was acutely aware of how much it pained him to see Coral suffering all along… almost like how a big brother would feel. "I understand, but you and your suit are ill-equipped to help Coral in anything besides brute force." Aenon let out a frustrated groan at that.

"Did you guys forget who you contacted for weapons?" Sheldon spoke up, startling everyone. "Aenon, if you desperately want to join Coral on the front lines then you'll need my expertise in upgrading your armor with everything you need."

"What? But… don't you only have ink weaponry?"

"That's perfectly fine! Hang on, I'll be right there! My shop is closed for today and tomorrow anyways, so this is a perfect opportunity." His receiver suddenly went silent.

Perch shook her head in amusement. "I wonder what plan he has in store. Hopefully nothing that won't take too long." Looking at the clock, she sighed. "As much as it pains me to admit it, it's starting to get too late to head over to Beaker's Depot. I'll be better served getting some rest before heading out early tomorrow. I'll be sure to contact you guys whenever I get the chance." With that, she super jumps away.

It wasn't long after when Sheldon appeared in a flying truck with a trailer attached to it. Aenon was suitably surprised. "You guys already figured out efficient flying tech? That's impressive."

Sheldon chuckled as he exited the vehicle. "While that's not exactly my expertise, I brought a little extra something regarding that. However, without the proper workshop, we won't be able to apply any of my tech that I brought with me."

"The submarine that I rest at every night has a suit maintenance bay that should work, but its currently running on auxiliary power and is unable to properly power anything else besides Aquarius' mainframe and the life-support systems. If only the main silo didn't irreversibly break down…" Aenon squeezed his eyes shut as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

Marie then thought of something. "Perhaps we have enough zapfish to power your submarine for what you need to do. Since I have yet to return the zapfish Agent 4 has already saved, I think it's only fair to let you borrow them to power what you need done."

Sheldon cheered as Aenon gave her a surprised look. "You'd really do that?! I promise we won't let you down!"

After rounding up all the zapfish and ordering Aquarius to surface the submarine so that Sheldon could get in as well, the two took off towards the ocean. Coral was about to leave for Inkopolis herself when Marie stopped her. "So… I never expected you would be going exotic."

Coral took a few moments to process what Marie said before she started blushing. "Ma-Marie! Aenon did that because he was-"

"Worried sick about you, I know. I'm just teasing you over it."

Coral breathed a sigh of relief before thinking about it. "Honestly… I feel like he's more the big brother I never had."

"What, you skipped the friendzone and put him straight into the brotherzone?" Marie let out a loud laugh at Coral's intense blushing. "I'm once again joking. You are so easy to tease."

"Arrgh… good night, Marie!" Coral dove into the grate, clearly feeling agitated. The older Inkling shook her head in amusement as she headed back inside the cabin.

" _ **Well well well… they broke my new toy already. No matter, I've got plenty from where that came from!**_

" _ **EheeheeheeHAHAHAHA!"**_

Marie could have sworn she heard something coming from the radio.


	8. Chapter 7

A/N: For a bit more enjoyment of this chapter, play the song Mining Melancholy when it appears. (it may help to have them in separate tabs from the beginning)

When the story mentions switching tracks, listen to the remix of the song by Jonny Atma

I own nothing here; the song is copyrighted by Rare and Nintendo

* * *

"Finally finished!"

Aenon and Sheldon collaborated to finish modifying Neptune as quickly as possible. Not only did both burn the midnight oil with a begrudging nap, but both neglected to keep themselves sustained. Despite this, it took well into the next day to finish all of the adjustments, despite having a decent amount of power running through the submarine now.

Neptune now had an ink tank fitting its size on the left shoulder, still allowing room for the back to open up, and an ink generator attached right on top of it; he mentioned a different mode of ink generation, but said that he would explain once it's properly needed. Sheldon had brought what he called an "outlawed special" called an inkzooka and was able to attach it to the right arm and tenta missile launchers were slotted onto the left shoulder. Sheldon also attached what looked like a personnel bracing set-up on the right shoulder, though he was being cryptic for what it would be used for.

Finally, the old flight kit was replaced with a newer, more advanced flight kit than what Aenon was able to manage by himself with low-tech parts. The new "wings" looked like angel wings when activated and allowed for total maneuverability in the air, especially when compared to the previous kit that required constantly flying forward to remain airborne.

Sheldon had to take a quick break in order for him to send a new weapon for Coral to test run. Turns out it was a paint bucket he called the hero slosher, earning a baffled look from Aenon who eventually just accepted that he can make a weapon out of almost anything.

When they were finally done, Aenon was sitting back, admiring their work. "I never imagined that I would be outfitting a suit meant for exploration for war. Guess that's the kind of situation I found myself in, though."

Sheldon pats the human on the arm. "That's just how the cookie crumbles. If we want to end this nightmare faster, we'll need your help and your suit's."

"Perhaps you two would be willing to finally eat?" Aquarius sighed as he observed the two resting. "If it makes you feel any better, I was able to lure in a sizable bluefin tuna and managed to strip the edible meat off the carcass for packaging, ready to be cooked."

Aenon shot a worried look at Sheldon, who realized why. "Don't worry. From what I understand, sea life was split between those who evolved on land and became sapient and those who remained in the ocean and remained primal. There are a few… exceptions, but that's not important."

This got a sigh of relief from the human. "So, I don't have to worry about murdering someone innocent just for sustenance."

"The bluefin population has been unnaturally high lately in the ocean, so fish away at those."

After a hearty meal of oven baked tuna and feeding their entourage of zapfish, Sheldon loaded up all the zapfish except for Voltare and his mate into his flying truck. Before he left he called to Aenon, "I also installed something of a radio on your unit as well and made it compatible with that music drive that you had. Maybe you can listen to some tunes whenever piloting Neptune now."

"That was unnecessary, but thanks for the effort. I'll join Marie at Octo Canyon shortly."

After Sheldon left, Aenon checked on the two zapfish left behind. Voltare remained in high spirits thanks to his mate being fine from her ordeal, which was mirrored. The entire group of zapfish was fine providing power to the submarine, especially since they were fed during their work.

"Perhaps you need a name as well… since I'm totally clever (not), I'll name you Joule. How does that sound?"

Joule loved her new name and warbled happily. Turns out she was also perfectly fine powering Neptune alongside Voltare; she felt like she owed him her life and was willing to do anything in her power to help.

When Aenon arrived at Octo Canyon, Marie and Coral were at the cabin. Coral blushed a little bit upon seeing him, but quickly recovered before he could see her. "Glad you can join us today. I'm surprised you're still away, judging by what Sheldon said about your work."

"What can I say? I aim to please."

Marie looked at Neptune with awe. "Looks like it's built for ink battles now, to a degree. Good to know Sheldon found a use for one of the now-defuncted inkzookas. Before you ask, legislation required weapon makers to completely redo specials, making some like the inkzooka no longer allowed."

"I was wondering about that. Thanks for the info." Looking at Coral he asks, "Are you doing anymore kettles outside of the one you did with the slosher?"

"Maybe one more. I'm amazed I'm still able to function after yesterday's harrowing experience, but I guess I bounce back easily." That got a worried look from Aenon; he wasn't overly convinced, but didn't pursue the subject.

Marie shook her head. "There's something off about one of the kettles in Beaker's Depot but it's not important. I got a message from Perch, who said that she barely got inside one of the kettles before it locked behind her. Seems we need to rescue every other zapfish in the area before we can help her, but she said that she'll focus on the survival of her fellows above reclaiming the mini zapfish."

"As long as she isn't doing anything too reckless." Aenon worried about Perch somewhat. He would never deny how battle-hardened the Octoling was, but that doesn't comfort him entirely.

Coral sighed as she stretched. "So, what's the plan with Neptune. Are you just gonna come when I need you?"

Marie nods at that. "That seems like the best way to do it. It feels unnecessary to have Aenon always there when his ink-power not needed. Scout the kettle and it's interior before we make a judgement call on that particular kettle."

Coral saluted and super jumped away while Aenon joined Marie in the cabin. It didn't take long for Coral to maneuver around the depot and found a kettle that was in a really rocky area of the base. That made Marie suspicious. "Why a kettle there of all places? There was always Octarian structures around the kettles in the past, so what makes this one so different?"

"Hold up, Agent 4!" Sheldon spoke up through the radio. "Could I, perchance, get more data on your hero shot?"

"Can do, Sheldon!" Coral didn't mind the hero shot; the only weapon she found any real distain for was the roller and that was purely due to her own inadequacies with it.

When Coral landed on the first respawn point of the kettle, she looked forward… and saw a huge mine shaft that lead into darkness. "I'd like to move forward, but I can't see a squidding thing!"

Marie was still trying to figure out why the kettle looked like that, not realizing that Aenon already left in Neptune towards that kettle. Coral was surprised when she heard the suit land heavily behind her. "Need a lift? Guess we're test running Neptune far sooner than we anticipated. I got lights on this suit that'll work wonders for visibility."

Coral let out a happy woomy and dashed back towards the suit. Just before she hopped on, Sheldon stopped her. "Instead of going inside the suit with Aenon, try attaching yourself to the suit's right shoulder."

The duo looked at each other before Coral complied, bracing her legs and back with the mechanical braces installed there. Suddenly some tubes attached themselves to the hero shot and it expanded into something that looks a lot louder. A holographic HUD appeared in front of her face, showing how much ink was in the suit's tank and gave her an aiming recital for her weapon.

Sheldon was ecstatic. "I can't believe it worked! I wanted to make it so that Agent 4 could still fight while Aenon was helping her; she shoots and Aenon moves and dodges! As for your weapon, meet the newly named Accelerator Shot, available only when you're riding Neptune. Range and damage output have increased massively and your bullet speed is blindingly fast. If you aim at an enemy, you'll be certain to splat it. The only real warning is that Neptune regenerates ink at a slower rate than you can when submerged, so be sparing with your ink fire."

"Sweet! Guess I don't have to hang back and let you do all the work, right Aenon?"

The human chuckled. "Making it a cooperative thing is about the best thing to do in these situations. Let's go- hold on I just thought of something."

Coral gave him a confused look as he deactivated the suit's tracking for one of his arms. He fiddled around with the radio Sheldon installed and was able to get a song he saw earlier while browsing to play: Mining Melancholy.

Turns out it had the effect of playing through Coral's headset as well, so she was the very first Inkling to experience human music. She didn't know what to think, but felt it was fitting for the area they were about to delve into. The zapfish enjoyed the music as well.

Aenon turned on Neptune's lights and walked forward. "Not even inside and I can tell this used to be a human mine. I don't know what they were mining here, but the architecture looks too large for it to be Octarian."

Coral looked around more and realized how tiny she was in comparison to her surroundings. Without Neptune for a ride, she would have taken forever to find the zapfish in this area. "Is this just going to be a series of long, horizontal mine shafts? Seems like an easy place to get lost."

"Not so, Agent 4." Marie spoke up, finally giving up on figuring out Octarian thought processes. "Aquarius and I have managed to map out the mine you're both in rather easily thanks to Neptune's scanners."

Aquarius hummed in confirmation. "I cross-referenced map data that was in my system, but I want you two to explore more before I confirm where exactly you are."

Sure enough, Aenon received map data from Marie and displayed it as a mini map on both his and Coral's HUD. While following it, Coral was able to quickly take out Octarians who were caught in Neptune's lights. She was floored by how powerful the accelerator shot was; if it weren't for the braces, she would have flown off the suit's shoulder from how much recoil it produced. Thanks to her body being mostly ink it didn't hurt too much.

Aenon made a point to dodge Octarian fire if they managed to shoot before Coral splatted them. He didn't want them discovering the suit's immunity to ink any sooner than they have to. They ran into a few dead ends, one of which containing a sunken scroll that was hidden behind a heavy door. Aenon had to lift the door high enough for Coral to disembark and slip under it to grab the prize.

Eventually, they found a much larger room that showed wires running through the area into what looked like a giant breaker box. Giant to Coral, anyways, but not to Aenon who opened it and flipped a few switches, causing the area to light up. Aquarius was quick to pick up on activity in the mine. "It seems that if you want to remove visibility restrictions for the entire area, you need to activate 2 more breaker rooms."

"Two more? I feel like we might have missed one." Coral double-checked her map and, sure enough, on of the branching paths they didn't take earlier had a similarly-sized room. "Guess we should head back and go there?"

Marie analyzed the data from Neptune a little more critically. "It might be required. The zapfish might be behind an unpowered security door that'll only open when all of the power is flowing again."

Aenon groaned at that. "I hate backtracking…" Coral nodded at that; she liked it better when Octarian bases were just a straight shot through.

The second breaker room was more guarded, but nothing the accelerator shot couldn't handle, though Neptune came dangerously close to running out of ink due to Coral being a little careless with her fire; she realized she was getting too much of a high from using the weapon, not unlike when she used a Grizzco blaster for the first time.

This breaker box had locks on it that prevented it from being opened normally. Aenon spotted some glowing spots on the sides and pointed them out, which Sheldon picked up quickly. "Splat switches! I'd recommend not using the accelerator shot on them; they might not react to such high-velocity ink."

"I think I have an Idea to circumvent this. Agent 4, get on the suit's hand and I'll bring you close to the switches." Aenon held the suit's right palm out upward and allowed Coral to climb on it. She was able to easily activate the switches that way, but the box remained sealed until they discovered two switches hidden in the room. With the box opened, the breaker box was activated.

Marie was starting to get a headache from how confusing the layout of the mine was. "Did you humans have to build your mines so confusing?"

Aenon had to think about it as the duo walked towards a path they haven't gone down. "It might have been due to them dowsing for whatever they were mining for. When they lost track of the materials, they simply started in a new spot."

"That, or the miners thought it was the most efficient way to mine what they were looking for." Aquarius was trying to process who used to mine here, but constantly drew blanks; his database didn't include everything in the old world.

After finding the last breaker room and activating it, the entire mine lit up and everyone heard the sound of a distant door opening. Going down the final path they never went down, Aenon and Coral beheld quite the sight.

They had come across a giant mining pit full of machinery and refineries. There were many walkways, both human and Octarian, lining the layered walls of the pit like a spider web. In the distance, a simple mining machine was working away as what looked to be rocks with grey shading, while a much more powerful machine was working on bluish rocks.

Aenon's music suddenly shifted into a more high-quality rendition of the song he was playing. It startled the two a bit; Aenon wasn't expecting the suit to change the song on him.

"I have confirmed that this is a dual-mining operation extracting both nickel and cobalt ore." Aquarius let out a concerned huff. "It seems the Octarians found this place and started mining the ore for their own uses; presumably the raw materials for all the sardinium ingots Agent 4 has been finding."

Marie didn't like the sound of that. If the Octarians were delaying their plans to mine enough metal to create war machines powered by zapfish, then the source of their materials needed to be shut down. "I think I can see the room containing the zapfish down in the central pit. Grab it and get out of there."

Sure enough, the zapfish was down there beyond what looked like a security door. However, when Aenon tried to fly down to it, an alarm went off and the door shut on him. "Okay, what now?"

His answer didn't take long to reveal itself. A giant mining machine, larger than Neptune and adorned with the Octarian symbol on both arms, suddenly burst through the far wall and launched itself at Neptune, forcing a panicked dodge out of the human. Coral was less than amused. "Where the squid did that thing come from?!"

"Presumably: human machinery that the Octarians somehow managed to repair and reactivate." Aquarius was not pleased with what was going on. The machine should have stayed deactivated; it was mostly autonomous. "The diamond-tipped cobalt drills it has on it's arms will rend your suit apart if it lands a direct hit!"

"Already one step ahead of you, Aquarius!" Aenon was trying his best not to get hit by the rampaging robot, who took no notice of the destruction of the other mining equipment in the large room. Everyone noted that despite the damage and age, the mine was stable enough to not collapse.

Sheldon wasn't too enthusiastic about a mining machine trying to be a killer robot. "Are mining robots really that deadly? You might as well use them as war robots if that's the case, but I suppose now is not the time for that!"

Marie was trying to figure out the machine when she received a message from an unidentified source from within the mines, male and rather young. "That machine cannot be destroyed directly! You need to find a way to disable it. I need your help to do so!"

"Who are you and how did you find this channel?"

"I'm one of the Octolings that follows Commander Perch. All I ask is that you buy me time to deactivate the protective locks on the machine's joints!"

Aenon didn't need to be told twice. "Agent 4, open fire on that machine. Try to aim for important spots that you can identify to see if it'll keep its attention on us!"

Coral quickly started taking pot shots at the red light on what seemed to be the machine's head. It had the effect of distracting the robot every time it started turning away from the suit, presumably to go after the Octoling who was trying to weaken it.

One time, however, lights flashed red all over its body and it suddenly stared dashing faster around the arena, freaking Aenon out. "Maybe don't take too many pot shots. Too many will cause it to overclock it's systems and move faster; if we aggro it too much it'll get too fast for me to dodge!"

Coral wasn't too enthusiastic about holding her fire; she has a hard time deciding when the best times to shot are. Thankfully, the machine didn't overclock itself again by the time it suddenly got stunned and some metal plates around the joints suddenly retracted, revealing the mechanical workings underneath.

The machine quickly recovered and, ignoring the duo completely, suddenly went after a certain spot. Aenon put two and two together and flew as fast as he could to where the machine was going. Sure enough, he saw the Octoling that had sent them the message, cowering in fear at the oncoming threat. As quickly as he could, he swooped in and snagged the Octoling before the robot buried it's drill into where he was, destroying many electronics in the process.

The Octoling looked dazed at what just happened. "Y-you managed to save me? I was convinced that this would be my final act in life…"

"Nobody left behind!" Coral shouted at him before focusing her attention back on the robot, who had suddenly reformatted itself to try and be more tanky.

Marie knew why the Octoling deactivated the armor plating. "Agent 4, aim for the joints with your accelerator shot! It should disable the machine."

Sheldon picked up what she was going for. "I'm able to mark exactly where you should shoot. Aim true, Agent 4!" Sure enough, Coral's HUD showed her where exactly the weak spots were and she fired on them. It took a few shots, but the ink managed to short-circuit the joint, hindering the robot's movement.

This caused the robot to try attacking in more unique ways, like upper cutting with the drills rather than just thrusting. It also started using a mining laser as a ranged attack, though Aquarius confirmed that Neptune can take a few hits from that before becoming badly damaged.

Octarians started taking pot shots at the suit from the edges of the area, presumably to try and get Coral off the suit and splatted. Thankfully, she was able to get them splatted before their ink bullets became a real problem, though one of them did hit Neptune in the leg and showing the Octarians that the suit was uninkable.

Marie decided to give some more advice. "Try to disable it's movement. That way, it'll be unable to properly swipe at you with those dangerous drills and avoid an early grave for the both of you!"

Sure enough, Aenon had a much easier time once the movement was disabled. After much laser dodging, Coral was finally able to short-circuit the final joint, causing the core of the robot to overload and shut down. This caused the alarms in the mines to deactivate and the hatch containing the zapfish to open again. Aenon wheezed a bit. "just break the zapfish out and let's get out of here!"

With the zapfish gone the mine lost all power, though this time Aenon was able to navigate safely out of the mines and back to Beaker's Depot. Quickly flying to the cabin, Coral dismounted from her braces and Aenon put the stunned Octoling down before disembarking.

Marie was overjoyed to see the two well. "I guess we were extra lucky that both Aenon was helping us and getting help from an Octoling ally."

The male Octoling shook his head. "I didn't do much of anything, really. I was sent there with a squad to try and shut down the mining operations there, but the rest of my squad was wiped out before we could get the zapfish. One of them gave me the means to disable that robot's protection, but I knew I couldn't use it without help."

Aenon clutched his fist; too late to save more innocent lives. He shook dark thoughts from his head and nodded at the Octoling. "You did your squad proud when you helped us. We are also thankful for your help."

Coral patted him on the back. "We all played our part in that mess. If you ask me, I think you should go to your fellow Octolings in Inkopolis and live your life for both you and your squad mates. It's what they would want, I would guess."

The Octoling squeezed his eyes shut for a minute before nodding. "Thank you all. I understand that this is a war you guys have covered in more than one way. When you next see Commander Perch, tell her that Tetricus Squad did their best." With that, he dives into the grates leading to Inkopolis.

Marie looked at the grate with a sad look in her eyes. "He sounded so young and inexperienced… as did a fair amount of the first group of Octolings we saved. How many young, inexperienced solders are in the rebel army?"

Coral shook her head. "They probably didn't have a choice. The Octolings fiercely loyal to Octavio are the experienced ones, leading Octolings like him to become rebels. Presumably because they didn't want to fight a war they didn't believe in."

Aenon sighed at that. "therein lies another part of the tragedy of war."

"The best we can do is honor Perch's wishes and spare as many as we can from the flames." Marie nodded at the duo. "Regardless, good job on reclaiming the zapfish and shutting down that mine."

Coral yawned. "I suppose, though that was a bit too much excitement for me. Mind if I take a quick nap?"

"Sure, but before you do, there's something I need to say." Marie sighed as she faced Aenon. "I never thought I would be doing this and it might be a long time coming, but with how things are and with you being such great help to our cause…

"Welcome to the New Squidbeak Splatoon, Agent 5."


	9. Chapter 8

Aenon was performing a maintenance check on Neptune while Marie went back inside to monitor Octarian movement. Coral was napping on the bench, tired from the excitement of dealing with a giant killer mining machine and trying to sleep off her power-high from using the accelerator shot; Aenon found her incredibly adorable asleep like that.

As he checked the suit out and made sure Voltare and Joule's living space was still comfortable for the pair, his thoughts kept wandering back to when Marie officially made him Agent 5. From her own words, he was the first non-Inkling member of the splatoon and that the only reason why she did that was because of the insurmountable help he was providing to their cause.

From helping provide intel to outright making sure Coral didn't die from something out of her league, he helped despite waking up after the end of his own species and literally knowing the two Inklings for literal seconds.

Neptune's armor had gotten a few scratches from all of the rock being flung around by both the Octo Berserker the other day and the rouge mining robot today. It still disturbed Aenon that the Octarians were starting to use human technology not only to mine for resources, but to augment their armies. If there's one thing that rings true, it's that no matter who uses it, human tech only leads to destruction. He knew that's why his father tried to make Neptune purely an explorational suit.

 _Forgive me for turning your creation into a war machine, father. But for the sake of ending this war before the Octarians start using far more destructive human weapons, I must. I'll destroy Neptune in the end if that's what it takes._

"You okay there, Aenon?" Marie had come out to see the human's face in deep contemplation. "Forgive me if making you Agent 5 has put you too much on the spot."

"It's fine, Marie. If anything, I'm grateful you considered me for joining your splatoon when only Inklings have joined in the past. I feel like I belong a bit more now." Marie smiled at that. She had hoped that he would be able to move to Inkopolis and live out his days among society and not all alone.

Sheldon called Aenon up. "How's the suit faring? Hopefully the ink generator was able to handle the stress."

"It's fine, Sheldon. The only thing of note is the minor scratches the rocks caused. I'm amazed the glass on the tank held up."

"It's an acrylic glass specially designed to be light-weight and incredibly resilient. It's standard in all of the ink tanks Inklings use in their ink battles, so durability was needed." Sheldon chuckled. "I guess the durability is better than I thought considering what that suit has been through."

Aenon laughed as Coral got up with a slightly groggy look on her face. Marie smiled at her. "Did you get enough rest, Agent 4? You still look kind of out of it."

"I'll be *yawn* fine. I'll be awake enough once I get into action. However, I don't think we have much of the day left for me to do more than one kettle. Hopefully it isn't as dangerous as that mine we went through."

Sheldon hummed at that. "I can point you to a kettle that's standard for normal Octarian kettles. However, it's also a kettle I want you to test a new weapon out in, so I'd recommend thinking about it."

"Why not? Give Aenon more of a rest as I try out a new weapon." Coral smiles at Aenon. "Don't get me wrong, Agent 5. Your help is greatly appreciated, especially for kettles like that last one. I just feel that having you along for kettles that are similar to those in Tentakeel Outpost and Suction-cup Outlook is a bit overkill."

Aenon nods at that. The less human tech Coral uses, the less she'll rely on it and the better off she'll be. "I understand. I'll be sure to help you out alongside Marie and Sheldon as per usual."

She nods at that before super jumping off. Aenon and Marie enter the cabin and activate the systems as Sheldon directed Coral towards the kettle. When she entered, Sheldon introduced her to the hero splatling, the pun of which was not lost on Aenon.

What baffled both Aenon and Aquarius was how the ink switches worked. You shoot at them and they rotate, somehow extending platforms temporarily. The best Sheldon could come up with was a hidden complex of gears and mechanical workings allowing ink switches to do that.

Eventually Coral came across a few flooders, one of which was… 'guarding' the way to a grapplink. Aenon gave them a flat look. "Are Octarians seriously using junk like that?"

Marie gave him a confused look. "What do you mean? They seem pretty effective, especially in the past when there were a lot more."

"What I mean is that they don't look like a final product to me. That looks like a rough prototype; mark one at best." He thought for a minute before bringing up the holographic display on his headset to type on Marie's computer. "Give me a second and I'll show you."

Coral was getting annoyed by a pair of flooders guarding a key to the vault she passed earlier. It was also difficult to lure them below the grapplink so that she could get on top and ride one to a box that she knew contained the sunken scroll. One spotted her again before it promptly shut down with the other, ink shower and all. "What just happened?"

"Even their firewall protection is poor…" Aenon shook his head as he reprogrammed the flooders to not only be remote controlled, but to spew yellow ink instead of purple. "Agent 4, don't worry about those flooders too much. Just tell me where you want me to direct them and it'll be done."

"Could you get one to move under this grapplink please?" She was able to get the sunken scroll really easily thanks to Aenon's hacking skills. In fact, the rest of the sections involving them became a joke to go through now that; instead of getting splatted she was getting a shower.

Sheldon chuckled. "Looks like we got our resident hacker along for the ride as well. Agent 5, you're really being a great asset to our team."

Aenon rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "My main forte is programming and dealing with computers, which I seem to excel at. I can also invent, but I'm definitely no master at that; you only need to look at my old flight kit to attest to that."

"You're decent enough to get by though." Sheldon hummed to himself before suddenly laughing a bit. "Tell you what. After this is all over, I think I'll be able to get you a job as a tech guy for someone."

Marie smiled. "That's great! In fact, you can take it now if you so wish."

"Thanks guys, but I feel we should try and prevent all-out war first before discussing career opportunities." Aenon nodded. "However, thank you for the praise, Sheldon. I'll keep your offer in mind."

With the zapfish rescued, Coral returned to go back to Inkopolis. Aenon managed to convince her to come by the cabin tomorrow morning for some wild tuna steak Aquarius was able to procure while his submarine had power. Marie confirmed what Sheldon said earlier: the fish living in the sea are fair game for hunting and eating.

* * *

 _The next day_

Thanks to the left-over power from all of the zapfish powering the submarine, Aenon had enough energy to cook five lots of tuna steak. One for everyone at the cabin, one for Sheldon, and one for Voltare and Joule to share. He wasn't the best cook, but he managed to make due thanks to guidance from Aquarius. "I just hope I can learn to cook when I move out of this submarine. I don't want to depend on you for everything, Aquarius."

"I'm sure you can. If it helps, try to draw parallels between programming and cooking: the recipe doesn't work if you mess up a line of code, so to speak."

"You always seem to know how to speak my language." Aenon laughed as the zapfish looked at each other in confusion.

After packing up the cooked tuna in containers and putting them in Neptune's storage, Aenon was ready to go. He forgot that he still had the maintenance tools in the compartment, but figured they could be useful for things other than just repairs.

Arriving at the cabin, Marie was once again looking groggy, though this time Coral was with her looking grumpy. "I hope this tuna you're brining is good. I really dislike getting up this early in the morning."

Aenon chuckled at that. "Guess us humans can be early birds more so than you Inklings. I was up two hours ago preparing for today."

Marie remembered a splatfest theme being early birds vs night owls and realized that, perhaps, the splatfest themes somehow came from humans who had sent random transmissions that came back to that machine they had unearthed over two years ago.

After a filling meal of tuna steak, cooked to perfection according to Marie, Coral set out for Beaker's Depot to knock out any remaining kettles in the area besides the one where Perch was situated. She managed to find one, but the area it was in seemed alien compared to Octarian architecture.

"Agent 4, do you copy?" Sheldon spoke up. "Would it be possible to get more data on the hero charger in this kettle?"

"Can do, Sheldon!" Coral equipped the charger. She wasn't a crack-shot with chargers by any means, but she felt confident enough to handle them.

Jumping in, she finds herself in front of what looks like an entrance to a laboratory with huge doors. "Guys are you seeing this?"

Aenon frowned. "There's a lab here? I don't recall there being one besides the lab where Aquarius was created and the submarine was launched, but that was is some distance away."

Marie looked disturbed. First a human mine and now a human lab. Why were the Octarians so obsessed with human tech and locations? "Can you get in, Agent 4?"

Coral looked around and even though she found a terminal, she couldn't find a way to open the door. "I'm stuck outside and it looks like there's no other way in. This sucks…"

Aenon sighed and he got up. "Guess I should head over and see if I can't open the way for you."

Sheldon noted Coral's surroundings. "Agent 5, I don't think you can get your suit in there. While the area looks human sized, it's definitely too small for a mech Neptune's size. You're probably going to have to go on foot."

"Wonderful. I'm willing to bet that if the front door is sealed, there will be plenty of other instances of doors needing opening for Agent 4. I don't fancy becoming a burden on her in combat situations; Octarians WILL be in there."

Sheldon chuckled at that. "Don't worry, I got you covered. You'll see what I mean once you reach your destination."

Aenon was able to lift the kettle up with Neptune before disembarking and going down on a convenient rope that was nearby, though not before grabbing a few repair tools and pocketing them. He landed next to Coral and, like Sheldon said, his drone suddenly appeared and dropped a suitcase beside the human.

Inside was not only the hero roller, but a large ink tank full of yellow ink and a belt that looked like it had four autobombs attached to it. Coral let out a happy woomy. "You can defend yourself with this! Good idea, Sheldon!"

"Thanks, but…" Aenon looked at the contents with a concerned look. "Why are you doing this all for me? I know you're in it for the weapons data, but I didn't think you would go this far. First Neptune and now this…"

Sheldon let out a happy sigh. "It's mostly because you let me work on a piece of human technology. I've gotten to do what nobody else, not even my grandpappy, has ever gotten to do. You've given me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and for that, you have my eternal gratitude. Providing you with the tools to help Agent 4 is the least I can do!"

Aenon chuckled as he attached the ink tank to his back and picked up the roller. "I guess it really was that important to you."

"You've no idea. Anyways, I figured that the roller wouldn't be as big for you as it is for Agent 4, so I gave it a temporary tweak. It'll never exit it's vertical fling state while you wield it."

"So, it's basically a sword to me. That's neat, but we should probably get a move on. That zapfish won't save itself." With those words, Aenon was able to access the terminal and open the front door of the lab.

Coral started shooting her charger to cover the ground out of habit, but quickly realized something was off. "What the squid?! The ground in here is uninkable!"

Sure enough, no matter how much she covered the ground, the ink refused to stick on the polished, white floors of the lab, disappearing seconds after landing. Marie didn't like the look of that. "I'm wondering just how many human-made things are uninkable. First Neptune, now these floors."

Sheldon hummed at that. "I guess this means that, on top of Agent 5 being unable to regenerate ink by himself, Agent 4's ink recovery will be slow as well. Make your shots count, guys!"

Aenon hoisted the roller like he would a sword. "Got it. Guess we'll have to play as sneaky as possible, quickly dispatching enemies as we see fit."

Coral didn't like being sneaky, but with the ground being uninkable, she knew it was necessary. However, barely a few hallways in, an Octarian trooper spotted them and activated an alarm. "That didn't last long!"

"Never even got a chance to be sneaky. Guess we're going in guns blazing… or in my case, rollers flinging." Aenon held his roller out, like he saw samurai did in some of the tv shoes and cartoons he watched when he was younger, before lunging at the octo trooper that activated the alarm and splatting it in one swing.

He immediately felt a bit nauseous over it, though Marie was quick to reassure him. "The standard octo troopers you see that look like octopus tentacles are only created by cutting off the limbs of full-fledged Octarians. They're barely sentient, so don't worry about it too much."

Aenon still felt unsure, but he went along with it. He just prayed he didn't have to fight an Octoling in this facility.

Coral was impressed by how well Aenon was doing as they fought their way through the facility. Despite never wielding a roller in his life, he was fairly proficient with swinging it like an inkbrush if the ink brush could splat in one swing. He even got hit by a few stray ink bullets from a twintacle trooper, but all it did was annoy him. Not being made of ink had its benefits.

Marie was impressed at how well the two worked together. Agent 4 used her charger to thin out as many enemies as she could with as few shots as possible, which was doable thanks to chargers penetrating their targets and getting multi-splats. Aenon was able to quickly clean up stragglers thanks to his roller. It reminded Marie all too much of how well she and Callie worked together and was reinvigorated to save her.

Eventually, the two agents came across a sealed door, only this time there was no nearby terminal. Aquarius hummed. "It seems that the terminal for that door is stuck on the path you two didn't take. Whoever built this place wasn't very efficient with their layout."

"More backtracking?" Aenon groaned in frustration, earlier nausea forgotten. "I could see it with the mines, but here as well? I'm starting to think I'm cursed."

Coral pats him on the arm. "Don't worry about it. If it makes you feel any better, we might find the sunken scroll or a piece of sardinium down that path as well."

Sure enough, a sardinium ingot was there, though the panel operating the door it was behind was broken. Aenon was glad he brought his repair tools, but Octarian troopers started appearing as he fixed the equipment. Coral was able to splat them all no problem, but noted that the ink they were shooting was darker than normal. Conveniently enough, there was an ink refill station that, after she shot the ink switch above it, allowed Coral to refill her ink tank quickly. Aenon was able to use it to refill his tank as well.

With both terminals activated, they went back down the hallway where the sealed door was and found a rather large room. There was a host of Octarian troops stationed there, forcing the duo to take cover before a wave of ink bullets came at them. Sheldon knew that Aenon forgot about his third gift already. "Aenon, try throwing an autobomb or two at those guys!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot I had these." The autobombs fit in the palm of Aenon's hand as he threw one, which activated when it hit the ground and started following one of the troopers, causing the whole squad to start backing away from it. This allowed Coral to get a few shots in before they stopped being distracted.

A few more toopers came in and managed to get the jump on Coral, causing her base armor to break. Aenon saw that she was in danger and quickly rushed to block all further ink bullets from hitting her.

He was able to do so, but one of the darker shots hit his shoulder… and he immediately went down with a scream of pain. Coral was able to pull herself together to splat enough troopers to allow them some breathing room before looking at Aenon and gasping.

The front of his shoulder where the dark ink bullet hit was slowly turning red. "Aenon, what's happening to you?!"

"I'm bleeding… is this what getting hit by a bullet feels like?"

Marie immediately knew what happened. "High-tide ink… to think they would resort to that."

Sheldon knew the two agents would ask about it and quickly spoke up. "We'll explain it later. For now, can you keep going, Aenon?"

"Y-yeah, I'll manage. It was my left shoulder and I'm right-handed, so I can still fight." He winced as he readjusted himself on the floor. "Though I wouldn't mind some pain killers right now."

Aquarius sighed. "You're not bleeding too profusely, thankfully. However, you will need that wound taken care of sooner or later. If Voltare and Joule are willing, they can power the medical facilities that'll patch you up."

Coral was infuriated. Not only was Aenon's advantage of being immune to splatting completely pointless now, but he was injured protecting her. With almost cold and calculating efficiency, she was able to take out the remaining troopers in the room. "That should deal with those." Turning back to her partner she states, "I'm aware you won't retreat until we are done here, but please don't be reckless. Unlike me, you can't respawn or heal fast."

"No promises, Agent 4." Aenon chuckled. "While I am a computer nerd, snap decisions aren't exactly my forte."

Coral roll her eyes at that but didn't comment. What disturbed her was how human blood was red in color; Inkling blood was typically just a lighter/paler version of their ink color.

Thankfully for the duo, there were no other large groups of enemies waiting for them. As they proceeded down the hallways opening doors, the greatest number of enemies in one place was three and they were easy to take out. The sunken scroll was hidden in a crate near another terminal that was too high for Coral to climb, but Aenon was able to get up in spite of his injured shoulder.

On of the rooms they briefly visited contained what appeared to be a single, opened pod that could fit an adult human. Nobody paid any real mind to it, but Aquarius wondered if there was another human who managed to survive humanity's end.

When they reached the zapfish, Aenon had to hack into the systems to deactivate the security. Like with the sardinium, enemies kept popping up to disrupt him, but Coral was able to keep them at bay thanks to a nearby ink dispenser. With the security systems down and the lab generator shut off, they were able to grab the zapfish and quickly leave the facility in darkness.

Aenon gave Coral a lift to the cabin. When they landed, she immediately started fussing over him and his injury, which had stained his shirt a bit more. Marie couldn't help but compare Coral to a concerned younger sister looking after a careless older brother.

"Coral, I'm going to be fine. Really!" Aenon was trying to get away from Coral trying to get a better look as his wound.

"If you really are fine, then let me see your wound to make sure it really is fine!"

Aquarius sighed. "Agent 4, struggling with him like that isn't helping his case. I'd personally suggest letting him return to the submarine and letting him access the medical facilities here; it'll help him heal to full in half-an-hour."

Coral hesitated before finally relenting. "Fine, but you better do it now! I don't want you so debilitated next time I need your help."

Aenon chuckled nervously. "Yes, my lady, I'll be sure to get that done." After reassuring Joule and Voltare that he was okay but needed their help, he flew away in Neptune back to the submarine with Coral watching him go with a concerned look.

Sheldon contacted Marie directly and let out a small laugh. "Are you sure those two aren't brother and sister?"

Marie had a hard time restraining her laughter at that, much to the young Inkling's confusion. Clearing her throat, she made sure Aenon was still tuned in before saying, "I'm willing to bet that both of you don't know what I meant when I mentioned high-tide ink, correct?"

Aenon hummed. "It's the first time I've heard about anything other than your normal ink."

"That's because it's a taboo ink that not only hits far more solidly than regular or even low-tide ink, but it has special properties that prevents injuries caused by it to heal far slower than normal. Back when Inklings and Octarians were still in good graces with each other, both sides agreed that high-tide ink should be considered forbidden in any and all circumstances."

Aquarius had been able to use Neptune's scanners to get information on Aenon's wound while Marie explained. "It basically acts like an extreme anti-Newtonian fluid. The slower healing might not affect humans as much considering they heal slow without outside help to begin with, but I can see why it would be bad for Inklings and Octarians."

"The fact that Octarians are using high-tide ink now is unforgivable. I get that we have Aenon on our side who's immune to normal ink shots, but that doesn't excuse them from skipping low-tide ink straight into high tide!" Marie clenched her fist. Coral looked at her with a worried look; it was the first time the younger Inkling saw the normally calm and collected squid sister become so upset.


	10. Chapter 9

A/N: When the story mentions playing music, play the song "Underwater Frigate Reactor Core", preferably the extended version. Stop playing it when it mentions stopping the music.

* * *

Thanks to Voltare and Joule's help, Aenon was able to get enough power to the medical bay to start healing his wounded shoulder. He was thankful that the first thing the equipment did was ease his pain; While he was able to hide it from Coral and the others, the pain from the wound was becoming unbearable. The equipment the went through the process using medi-packs and another healing apparatus to super-speed the wound's healing process and not only close it, but repair any nerves and blood vessels that were ruptured/damaged.

The wound didn't hurt anymore, but it was infuriatingly itchy for those long 30 minutes of letting the equipment work its magic. Aenon noted that the back of the medical bay had some sort of containment pod that looked like a cylinder of glass with a LOT of machinery attached to it. Aenon questioned why that's there if the equipment outside can heal wounds without it, but then figured it was for patients who were on the brink of death.

The two zapfish watched Aenon during the process with worried eyes as they powered the equipment the best they can. They never expected him to get hurt they way he did, especially considering he wasn't made of ink and could take most ink shots like they're nothing; with Marie stating how he was injured, they were worried that he was far more vulnerable without his suit than they anticipated.

When the healing process was done, Aenon did a few stretches to make sure his shoulder was perfectly fine. When that was done, he disconnected the two zapfish from the machines and cuddled them. "Thank you, Voltare and Joule, for being here during this. I can't promise that it won't happen again, but I'll be more careful from now on; the existence of ink bullets that can hurt me blind-sided me in more than one way." He got two happy warbles from that.

After a quick snack, he headed back towards the cabin in Octo Canyon. When he landed, Coral was gone and Marie was inside with a confused look, as if she was once again baffled by something. "What's wrong?"

"Agent 4 left to find the final kettle besides the one Perch went into and the boss kettle a short while ago. However, she's been having difficulty locating it for some reason; she's looked everywhere from what I can tell."

"I think I know where it is. If it is there, I'm going to be very upset." Coral's unamused voice came up on the headset. On the screen, she started heading towards one of the corners of Beaker's Depot in her ink, having inked the area in her attempts at finding the kettle. When she got to her destination, she looked into a nearby reservoir and saw the kettle. "Are you squidding me? How am I supposed to get down there?"

Marie felt like she was going brain-dead from all these questionable decisions the Octarians were making. This one made zero sense because every kind of Octarian were just as weak to water as Inklings were.

Aenon sighed at the image as he got up. "Guess you really don't have a choice but to have me go in with Neptune. I guess the silver lining is that I can't go into that kettle without the suit; I can swim, but I can't breathe underwater."

"Such a wonderful silver lining." Coral stated sarcastically before sighing. "Are you well enough to be out here again?"

"I'm back to how I was before getting shot, if that's what you're asking." Aenon sighed as he approached Beaker's Depot. "I'll try to help you on missions where I can be in Neptune, but I'm willing to bet that the lab isn't going to be the last time I'll be on foot and you need my help."

Sheldon hummed over the radio. "I have a gut feeling you're correct, Agent 5. Like I said before, that's just how the cookie crumbles; if we need to do something that'll help us end this war sooner, then so be it."

Aenon was about to dive in with Neptune when Coral stopped him. "I don't care if I can't help you while down there, I'm going with you in that suit!"

This baffled everyone as she started climbing the suit, especially Aenon. "Wait, what? You do know that if water starts seeping into the suit you'll be the first one to go."

"I have full confidence that won't happen."

The human sighed as he opened the hatch to let her in. "Where was that confidence earlier?"

"We don't talk about that."

Marie managed to recover some of her thought processes. "Be careful down there, you two. If the kettle is underwater, then I have no doubt the zapfish will be as well. There's no telling what will be down there."

"Duly noted, Marie. At least we won't be dealing with Octarians at all." After Coral was comfortable on his back, Aenon jumped into the reservoir and opened the kettle. What greeted them going down was a long pipe that seemed to go on for half-an-hour. "Riveting…"

Sheldon wasn't too pleased himself. "Just where is that kettle leading you? If the Octarians wanted to lead you into a trap, they should have done so with a kettle that WASN'T submerged."

Marie groaned. "Please, I just gave up trying to figure that out. Don't make me start again."

"Hang on, I see a light at the end of the pipe."

Like Aenon said, the kettle pipe was almost to the destination. Right as he exited the pipe, the suit started playing a song titled "Underwater Frigate Reactor Core". It was perfect for what the duo inside the suit beheld.

Before them was an expanse of coral reefs and various underwater flora and fauna inside what looked like a room. Above them looked like a glass ceiling that went on for a long time that was occasionally punctuated with machinery, though the rocky walls reached up to it in certain places.

Coral was the first Inkling to ever be underwater and live. She was blown away at how much color was down here. "This is… so beautiful…"

Aenon moved forward slowly as he looked around before a realization hit him. "This place was supposed to be a massive aquarium built by humans! It was designed to be a mini ecosystem and, based on everything here, it's been self-sustaining ever since Humanity's fall."

Marie couldn't believe her eyes; all Inklings ever thought of the ocean was a giant death pit to their kind. The feed she was getting from Neptune was breathtaking, to the point of her starting a recording of it. "I think this is the first time Inkling kind has ever seen below the waves ever since we evolved to live on land and became mostly ink-based. To think such beautiful scenery is no longer within our reach…"

As they traveled, Neptune went through some schools of vibrantly colored fish. Some instantly scattered away from the suit, others began swimming along side it. Various flora like anemones and even a few strings of kelp waved in the water, reacting to their presence, but never interrupting them. As they moved from room to room, the set-pieces remained largely the same, but the fauna in each room differed to a degree.

Aenon felt warmth in his heart has he heard everyone, including Sheldon, softly gasping at all of the scenery. Despite Neptune being outfitted for war instead of exploration, it's ability to explore even the ocean depths has managed to give some people, especially Coral, a once in a lifetime chance to see the beauty the ocean had to offer. The music only served to accentuate the feeling; the calm, mysterious, yet peaceful tunes helped convey a sense of wonder.

As they went on, the peaceful atmosphere suddenly vanished when a few unmarked, automated drones spotted Neptune and attacked. "Guess there were threats down here after all. This couldn't just be a serene dive into this aquarium." Aenon moved to engage the drones with the suit's hands; despite the water limiting movement, he still could move his appendages fairly fluidly thanks to the suit's advanced hydraulics.

"Wait, Aenon! Activate that flashing icon next to your ink tank gauge." Sheldon spoke up quickly. Sure enough, a symbol started flashing when he said that and Aenon deactivated tracking for one arm to press it.

-SWITCHING INK PRODUCTION TO HIGH-TIDE INK

This appalled Marie. "Sheldon! You do realize that-"

"It's incredibly taboo and I shouldn't have installed it on Neptune? I realize that, but I had a gut feeling for the longest time that we would have to deal with non-Octarian threats sooner or later. Case and point here with these hostile drones. Besides, the Octarians made it clear that they don't care about the taboo anymore, so why should we as well? An eye for an eye, as my grandpappy always said."

Coral shot a worried look at Aenon, who sighed. "Guess we don't have a choice, do we?" Activating the inkzooka on his right arm, he shot at one of the drones. The drone tried to dodge, but got blown up by the hyper-concentrated ink that shot out. "I'm surprised that my shot didn't just instantly dissipate."

"High-tide ink has enough viscosity to maintain it's shape underwater for at least a few seconds before dissipating." Sheldon breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm just glad your ink weapons can still function underwater, though you have to be relatively close to your targets here; you can't just blow them up a mile away with your inkzooka and your tentamissiles' homing is hindered."

"Right, my missiles." Aenon launched a couple off at the remaining drone and despite the drone having better evasive maneuvers, the missiles hunted it down long enough to destroy it. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that there's going to be more drones. Guess I'll keep my combat systems online."

Despite the sudden inclusion of combat, the music never changed from the serene soundtrack, which was slightly jarring for everyone listening. Marie made a mental note to cut out all of the combat when she moves to upload the footage she was getting here onto the internet for all to see; this scenery was too breathtaking to keep locked away in the New Squidbeak Splatoon's vault of secrets.

Aenon noted that the drones had rather poor armor and ineffective weaponry despite being hostile, leading him to conclude that they were more-so recon units rather than anything built for combat. His suspicions were confirmed when they happened across a slightly larger drone that had more intimidating weaponry and better armor; it took 5 missiles to destroy as opposed to the two for the recon units.

Despite the increasing combat frequency, Coral remained astonished by her environment and was ever looking at everything that caught her eye. She noted that the glass ceiling had started developing cracks as they went deeper down the linear pathways. "How structurally sound is the glass roof?"

Aquarius, having been silently trying to discern the origin of the drones, spoke up. "I've identified this glass as being an advanced form of acrylic glass mixed with glass carbon for resistance to weathering. While highly durable, persistent attacks from the local fauna will eventually break the glass."

Aenon eyed the cracks with skepticism. "I don't think it was the wildlife that caused these cracks."

Sure enough, they came across what looked to be a large human battleship, haven sunken and destroyed the end of the aquarium, explaining why the ecosystem was still thriving without human caretakers. It also somewhat justified the song's name as the side of the ship read: Aegis Destroyer.

What slightly disturbed both Aenon and Aquarius was the fact that, despite being sunken around 12,000 years ago, there was barely any signs of decay or hardly any coral attached to the ship, like someone or something was keeping it cleaned. Marie took one long look at the ship before saying, "I'm willing to bet that's where the zapfish is and also where all these drones are coming from."

It didn't take long after entering the ship to detect the zapfish. However, Neptune also picked up a disturbing amount of drone signals; this was indeed a launching platform for them. Aenon remembered how close this was to Inkopolis and realized with horror that, perhaps, the Octarians wanted to launch human drones at Inkopolis, made from the cobalt and nickel mined nearby.

 _All the more reason to shut this place down; I can't let the Octarians use this tech, else they'll destroy both the Inklings and themselves!_

Thankfully, getting up to the zapfish wasn't much work with just 2 combat drones guarding it. Coral was actually kind of sad to leave the area; she almost wanted to fall asleep here, though she booted that thought out of her mind when Aenon stopped the music.

When they got back to Beaker's Depot, the lock on the last regular kettle suddenly exploded off, allowing Coral to access it. Sheldon was quick to pick up on this as she disembarked from Neptune. "Agent 4, I'll give you the option to pick whatever weapon you feel most comfortable with again. If this kettle is anything like the one you first met Perch in, you'll need every advantage you can get."

Coral decided to go in with the slosher due to its ability to hit over walls better than most other weapons. She took one look at Aenon as he disembarked and shook her head. "I'd rather not get you involved in this particular fight, Agent 5. I am still not over you getting hurt like the last time you went with me, and I doubt there's anything I need you specifically for."

"But-"

"No buts!" She lets out a sigh. "I get that watching me suffer through these kettles is harrowing on you, but can you allow me this one selfish request? I don't want to see you get hurt on my account again…"

Aenon tried to think of a retort to that statement, but couldn't think of anything and slumped over a bit. "Okay… I won't join you this time…"

Coral felt a bit guilty doing that to him, but it was for his own health. After seeing him fly off in Neptune, she dove down into the kettle.

When she landed, the first thing she noted was that she was surrounded on all sides by cyan Octolings, followed by realizing her own ink color changed to cyan as well. Many of the Octolings jumped at her presence, but a familiar looking one smiled. "Glad you could finally join us, Agent 4. The last few days have been harsh, to say the least."

Coral nodded at Perch. "I would have come sooner if it weren't for that stupid lock."

"I understand. I think it might have been a trap designed for you, but I triggered it when my coming here; they clearly didn't expect me to survive that other warzone."

Marie hummed at that. "So, your presence allowed Agent 4 to rescue more zapfish faster than she would have been if she came here first. I thank you for your sacrifice, Commander Perch."

"I do what I have to. Anyways, I'm going to give you a status report. I've been able to cut casualties down to 10% when I got here by having every squad retreat back to here and entrenching ourselves by this spawn point. While this gave the enemy total reign over the rest of the battlefield, we've been able to create something of a safe zone.

"That being said, they have started using a much darker ink compared to how light their purple ink normally looks. This has had the effect of making wounds caused by them heal much slower, hindering our ability to fight back. We may have cut casualties down, but out of the 20 Octolings still alive here, only 5 are still capable of fighting."

Coral adopted a dark look. "So, they've started using high-tide ink against you guys as well. Octavio really has gone off the deep end."

Sheldon sighed at that. "That means you've got your work cut out for you, Agent 4. Even a single hit from high-tide ink will cripple you, so make sure to pick your fights carefully."

"Don't worry. I managed to unlock autobombs from the Ammo Knights Enhancifier while Agent 5 was off healing, so I can play more tactically."

The "Agent 5" mention confused Perch as Coral swam away. "Agent 5? Did you guys managed to recruit another Inkling?"

Marie giggled. "Not really. I made Aenon into Agent 5 due to all of the help he was giving us. A lot of these kettles have been leading to where humans used to be and he's been instrumental in saving zapfish from those areas. He even managed to save one from an entirely underwater kettle."

Perch nodded at that. She did think of Aenon as the type who prefers helping directly as opposed to over an intercom or radio. She was about to change to topic when she did a double take at the "Underwater kettle" Marie mentioned. "They seriously stuck a zapfish underwater?!"

"Yup. If it weren't for Neptune being built for underwater exploration, we would have had no way of progressing forward. I guess it shows how desperate the Octarians are at keeping the zapfish out of our hands." Perch shook her head in distain. Octavio is shaping up to be even more insane than she thought.

Coral was able to rescue at least one mini-zapfish from the recreation of the Humpback Pumptrack, though she was very cautious in moving forward. Not only were Octoling super jumping from somewhere out of sight, but there were a mix of them using both regular and high-tide ink. She can rush the regular ones, but the high-tide ones she used her auto bombs on to try and make sure they couldn't land a shot on her.

When she managed to save the second mini-zapfish, Perch suddenly contacted her. "I'm sending you some back-up to help give you an edge in taking back the other six mini zapfish."

This surprised Coral. "Didn't you only have five battle-ready Octolings? Aren't you making yourself more vulnerable?"

"I only had five to begin with, but ever since Agent 5 arrived with "medical stimpacks", our injured have been healing as fast as they used to, albeit with bad itchiness. They're not quite 100%, but they can fight again, both in case we get attacked again and when you need more support."

Coral facepalmed at hearing Agent 5 being mentioned. "Of course, he wouldn't stay away. What was I thinking?" Sighing, she directly contacted Perch. "Can you make sure he doesn't leave your encampment? We found out that he can be hurt by high-tide ink and it was really bad for him the one time he got wounded. I don't want him risking his life anymore than he needs too."

"Duly noted. I'll keep an eye on him. If anything, he's busy being a medic to everyone who got injured by high-tide ink."

Thanks to the backup she got from the Octolings on her side, Coral had a much easier time getting at the next two mini-zapfish. She noticed that after those, the enemy density increased a bit, though most of the reinforcements were regular Octolings.

Unfortunately for her, during one of their skirmishes, the higher density of regular ink fired at her managed to hide a high-tide bullet that managed to hit her in the leg, causing her to go down in a cry of pain. Her allies managed to disengage and drag her away from the fight before anymore damage was sustained. "In the leg of all places…" She felt like she wanted to cry, both in pain and in frustration.

"Agent 4, let's get you back to our entrenched position." A female Octoling said as she put Coral's arm over her shoulder and gave her a lift, allowing her to walk on one leg. "Our allies here can work on thinning out the enemy for when you come back out."

When Coral got back to the encampment, Aenon was administering a medical stimpack on another injured Octoling when he saw her come in. He immediately started fussing over her after finishing with the Octoling, though he quickly found out that she hates needles. "Coral, unless you want to sit the rest of this mission out, you need to take one of these."

"I'm well aware of that! I just… I really hate needles!"

"Then perhaps I should go out there and-"

"No, not allowed! What would happen if you got hit by a high-tide bullet?"

Aenon huffed in irritation; he was getting sick of that argument. "The same thing that just happened to you. I get that you worry about me in regards to that, but what about my feelings? I worry about you as much as you worry about me; the only reason why I let you do this by yourself is because I didn't think there was as much danger and look what happens!"

Perch watched the two bickering as Aenon tried to help with a small smirk on her face. Marie contacted her directly with a giggle. "Despite being two different species, they look more like brother and sister, don't they?"

"Actually, they look like a bickering couple to me." This earned a snort of amusement from the squid sister. "I guess my opinion is an unpopular one."

"Moreso that I've already teased her about having Agent 5 as her boyfriend."

Now it was Perch's turn to snort in amusement. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

"I refuse to say anymore."

Coral finally relented and allowed Aenon to use a stimpack on her though she had to close her eyes to let him do it. Luckily for her, he didn't have to go in too deep near the wound to properly inject the medicine, which had the effect of giving her wound the ability to regenerate as if she got hit by a regular ink bullet. "Wow, this stuff is pretty potent… now can you fix the untold amount of itchiness my leg feels?"

"No dice on that. You're going to have to bear with it; it's part of the healing process for us humans and I suspect the same for your kind as well."

Coral groaned at that. "This is going to be so distracting… no point in complaining though, it's back to rescuing mini-zapfish for me."

When she got back to where her support was, they confirmed that they were able to take out a fair number of enemies in her absence. She figured that these particular Octolings were actual solders at one point and were fairly competent, though she would never want to throw shade at any of them; they weren't there exactly by choice.

Rescuing the rest of the mini-zapfish took no time at all, more than likely because the Pumptrack's proportions weren't blown up like The Reef's were. Coral had an encounter with an elite Octoling, but it wasn't anything she couldn't quickly take care of.

With the final mini-zapfish rescued, the allied Octolings retreated to the cabin, where both Marie and Perch gave them full authorization to move to Inkopolis. When they were all gone, Perch turned to Coral. "I hate to say this, Agent 4, but I was unable to discern the identity of the protector of Beaker's Depot. You'll be going in blind this time, though my intel last time wasn't helpful anyways."

Coral patted her on the arm. "You tried and that's all that matters; I just hope it isn't another Octo Berserker case. Regardless, I'm feeling pretty tired from today's excitement, between the lab, the underwater kettle, and that last kettle."

Perch nodded. "I'll head back to Beaker's Depot and see if there are anymore Octolings who aren't too keen on joining Octavio's mad cause."

Aenon stopped her before she super jumped away. "I just wanted to deliver a message. Tetricus Squad did their best in their mission."

Perch looked at him with wide eyes. "No… they didn't get wiped out, did they? I sent them there because I didn't think there would be anything too dangerous there!"

"Sadly, they were almost wiped out by a human mining robot that the Octarians managed to reactivate and reprogram. One did survive and he helped us destroy that thing, but almost at the cost of his own life. He's in Inkopolis now."

Perch squeezed her eyes shut before nodding at Aenon. "Thank you for saving his life. And thank you for helping all of us, Agents 4 and 5. Your acts of heroism will not be forgotten, no matter what any other Octarian says." She salutes them before super jumping away.

Aenon simply closed his eyes as Coral left Octo Canyon for the day. _It's the legacy of my species that's causing so much suffering to you guys._


	11. Chapter 10

The next day in the submarine, while Aenon ate with Voltare and Joule as his clothes were being laundered, him and Aquarius were discussing what they had learned about the Octarian's actions. It disturbed the both of them that the Octarians had such a keen interest in human technology and locations to the point of putting their bases nearby or inside structures that, by all accounts, should have crumbled to dust long before sea life evolved to live on land.

Aquarius let out a low grunt as he processed the information. "I can sort of see using the mine that humans left behind for materials; they seem to be a more industrial race than the Inklings."

Aenon scratched his head as he interacted with Voltare and Joule in his lap. "What I don't get is how they managed to get their tentacles on human drones. The fact that they're using a crashed human ship that's connected to that aquarium as a launching platform, if the scans from Neptune are to be believed, frightens me. Are they really that desperate to take Inkopolis for themselves that they'd stoop to using humanity's more dangerous tech?"

"May be. While it may have been in conflict with what Professor Kamabo wished for Neptune, perhaps it is for the best that we are helping the New Squidbeak Splatoon in stopping them."

Aenon thought for a moment before remembering something. "Marie had mentioned that, between her own accounts and her grandfather's, Agent 3 never went through anything like this during their time in Octo Valley. I almost feel like I… interrupted some sort of space-time continuum with my existence."

Aquarius sighed at that. "That line of thought is not productive; it's bordering paradoxical. What I'd much rather know is what the purpose of that lab you went through is. It looked like it was stripped of most of it's equipment save the generator, which begs the question of why they needed a zapfish for that location, and that single pod that looks suspiciously similar to the cryo-stasis pods developed for this submarine."

Now it was Aenon's turn to sigh. "So many questions, not enough answers. I guess the only way to find out is to capture Octavio and get him to talk about what his plan was with these facilities. The only way to do that is to keep saving all of the zapfish. Speaking of, I should probably go back to Octo Canyon and see if they'll need my help with the boss kettle."

With that, after putting on dry clothes, a quick maintenance check on Neptune, and replacing all of the old cushions and pillows in the power slot with fresher ones, Aenon headed back to the cabin. When he landed, he noted that Marie was already awake and messing around with her own tech. "You're a bit late today, Agent 5. Were you doing something?"

"Aquarius and I were trying to understand why the Octarians were moving into human structures. As you can probably tell, we didn't get very far. What are you up to?"

"Trying my best to identify who or what is in the boss kettle so that we can avoid any nasty surprises like the last boss kettle. It's getting frustrating just how well shielded these kettles are to scanners, when normally we can at least identify what the area below is called."

Aenon adopted a thoughtful posture. "Perhaps more human tech they managed to somehow salvage. There were plenty of humans who developed anti-scanning measures before the final war of humanity wiped them out."

Marie sighed as Coral popped out of the nearby grate. "Maybe so." Turning to the younger Inkling she says, "Agent 4, All my attempts to get you info has ended in failure. If you want to go in without Aenon again, he'll at least be on standby nearby in case something like the Octo Berserker happens."

Coral nodded at that. "I've pretty much accepted that getting information from those kettles is like finding a needle in an algae stack. I'm fine with Aenon being on standby with Neptune incase things go south, but hopefully that won't happen."

Aenon nodded as he went back to Neptune. "Shall we get going over there then? Might as well knock it out while the day is young." Coral nodded at that and super jumped away as Neptune took off.

Marie contacted them as Coral platformed her way to the boss kettle. "I should probably say this now, but I tried contacting Perch a little while ago and I got no response. I hope she's alright or just inside a kettle currently."

Coral scoffed. "Marie, she's an Octoling who's seen plenty of carp in her life. If anyone is hardy enough to survive anything, it'll be her."

When she got to the boss kettle, Sheldon managed to contact her. "I hate to be a burden, Agent 4, but could you use the hero dualies for this kettle? I need more practical data from them and I figured that mobility will be good for you."

Coral let out a very happy woomy at that; dualies were quickly becoming her favorite weapon class, right up there with blasters. "You got it, Sheldon!" With that, she dove into the kettle.

Aenon started subconsciously holding his breath as he watched the feed Neptune was receiving from Coral's headset. Unlike the arena where they fought the Octo Berserker, there was a giant pool of Octarian ink at the far end of the arena with a zapfish hanging over it.

When Coral used the jump pad to land on the arena, a tentacle came up from under the ink's surface and grabbed the zapfish. Aenon figured that it would just be a pool of ink, only for him to discover that there was solid ground under that ink. "How does that work?!"

Marie giggled at his reaction when she realized he's never seen that phenomenon before. "Let's just say the ink is deeper than you'd expect. And don't ask why; some things are best left unexplained." All she got was an undignified huff in response.

As the boss slowly came up from the ink, Coral found herself staring at a huge pair of eyes and what looked like a giant set of lips on a stamp as it roared like the Octo Oven.

 _I'm BAAAAAAAAACK!_

 **Octostomp**

Marie stared at the feed in disbelief. "Wait, I know this guy! It's Octostomp!"

That greatly confused Sheldon and Aenon. "Octostomp? But didn't Agent 3 take him down years ago?"

"I guess he's back for more. You've got this, Agent 4, even without Aenon's help. If Agent 3 could take him down in the past without a fancy suit of human armor, I'm pretty sure you can."

Aenon chuckled as he watched Octostomp attack. "I'm pretty sure Neptune would be complete overkill anyways. And going down there without Neptune is completely out of the question; us humans can be very vulnerable to getting crushed and my mobility is molasses compared to you Inklings swimming in ink."

Coral grimaced at that as she dodged Octostomp's dash and faceplant. She's all too aware of Aenon's single life on any mission as opposed to her 4 lives total for each kettle, not counting lives restored by a new checkpoint in normal levels.

Thankfully, the only two tricks Octostomp had up its nonexistent sleeve was getting a new, uninkable coat after the first hit and two more faces after the second. All Coral had to do was attack the coat's buckle enough for it to pop right off, allowing its body to be inked again. After bursting the tentacle on its back three times, Octostomp was finished once again.

Marie sighed as things began to unwind from that fight. "Agent 4 and Agent 5? I just want to say thank you for everything you're doing here and how much help you two have been. This might be overdue, but I think it's time to tell you my other purpose in asking for your help, especially yours, Agent 4."

Aenon and Coral were a bit confused as she said, "Was there something you didn't tell me when you first recruited me on the day we met Aenon?"

"Well… you recall that I was searching for the great zapfish, correct? I think I told Agent 5 about it too." Marie got two hums of confirmation. "I'm afraid that's not the whole story and I'm sorry about not telling you two. You see… Just as much as I want to find the great zapfish, I also want to find my cousin Callie. She vanished on the same day as the great zapfish."

Coral gasped. "I remember Off the Hook bringing that to attention a week ago or so, which was the same time the disappearance of the great zapfish was headlined too."

Marie breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm glad you already knew, Agent 4, but I'm afraid Agent 5 is a bit more in the dark."

"That's what happens when you're basically an alien or living fossil to the new dominant species of Earth." Aenon chuckled.

"Hush you. Anyways, just in case you were wondering, I'm Agent 2 and Callie is Agent 1 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon. You guys already know about Agent 3, though the reason she isn't here is because she's out with our grandpa, Cap'n Cuttlefish and won't be back for an unforeseeable amount of time."

Coral wondered if that was the reason why Perch called her a "fine successor to Agent 3" a few days ago. "You can't try and radio them to come back and help?"

"Sadly no." Marie let out a defeated sigh. "What makes matters worse is that I was supposed to protect Inkopolis while they were away but… Callie… the great zapfish…"

Aenon quickly tried to cheer her up. "Marie, don't worry too much about it. We'll find Callie and the great zapfish no matter what!"

"I agree!" Coral piped in. "That just motivates me even more to knock out these kettles as fast as possible. If anything, you should have told me sooner!"

Marie let out a small laugh at that. "Yeah, sorry about that. Regardless, we'd be totally suck without the both of you and for that… I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I KNOW we can find Callie through this and your statement says to me you're willing to see this through."

" _Lea… No… LEAVE NOW!"_

Everyone jumped at that, especially Marie. "I THOUGHT the radio acted up after that fight with the Octo Berserker. Whoever this is, you'd better watch out, or you'll have to contend with both Agents 4 AND 5!"

Coral exited the kettle with an amused look. "I doubt they'll listen, Marie. If anything, they'll be throwing more dangerous challenges at us in the up-coming area."

"I never got the logic of throwing your weaker legions at the enemy first…" Aenon sighed in disappointment. "I'm not complaining, mind you. It just makes more logical sense to throw your strongest troops at a serious threat first; if they fail then you know for sure you're doomed from the start and don't waste time and resources."

"They kind of did that in regards to the Octo Berserker, though I get the feeling that one was more unintentional." Coral stretched a bit; while Octostomp was nothing too severe, she still had to get rid of her adrenaline rush.

Marie was silent for a few seconds before saying, "Do you guys want to take the rest of the day off? I know you just reaffirmed your determination to see this whole thing through, but there's no need to overexert yourselves after a boss fight. Besides, I think it'll do Aenon good to be exposed to our culture a little more."

Aenon looked at Coral, who thought about it before nodding. "I guess it wouldn't hurt today. Besides, I could show you more turf wars and, maybe, mingle with other Inklings; I doubt you'll get far just by interacting with me and Marie here in Octo Canyon. I'm going to stop by my apartment complex first as there's something I want to grab there."

"If you're certain. Did you want to fly with me to Inkopolis, or are we going to meet in the square?"

Coral hummed a bit at that. "As enjoyable as rides in Neptune are, I think it'll be better if you wait for me in the Square. I doubt you want to wait for me right as soon as we enter." With that, she super jumps away.

Aenon merely shook his head as he boarded Neptune and took off for Inkopolis, though not before dropping by the cabin to say goodbye to Marie. He reached the spot he used last time to hide the suit and entered the city from there; he could remember his way around from his last visit.

When he got to the square, he opted to sit in one of the larger chairs that was nearby Crusty Sean's food truck. With nothing to occupy his time, he observed the comings and goings of Inklings and noted some size disparities among them: some were almost as big as he was, some were smaller than Coral, and other still were either slightly taller or the same size as Coral.

"Sorry to keep you waiting!" Aenon turned to see Coral wearing what looked like a blue bandanna (FishFry Biscuit Bandana), a lime green shirt (Lime Easy-Stripe Shirt), and a pair of white and pink shoes (Orca Passion Hi-Tops). He was so used to seeing her in her hero suit that he was stunned at seeing her more casual clothing. "Right, you never seen me wear anything else. This is my preferred attire for going into turf wars and, hopefully, will be fully optimized for when I can go into ranked."

Aenon managed to stop gaping at how nice she looked and gave her a confused look. "Could you possibly…?"

Coral facepalmed at that. "Right, you don't know. We should probably try and keep this quiet so that nobody gets suspicious." She got two drinks and sat down as Aenon leaned in to listen. "The general gist is this: turf wars are ink battles where the only thing on the line is extra progress points and cash. Progress points, or exp as some squids call it, help determine your level of "freshness", which dictates a lot of what you can do as an Ink battler; from Sheldon offering a wider selection of weapons to stores selling higher star gear.

"I went into exp and level because in order to do ranked, you need a level of 10 in order to access ranked battles, while a lot of other services are available at level 4. Ranked battles and, by extension league battles, use different battle rules than standard turf wars, with the current ones being Splat Zones, Tower Control, Rain maker, and Clam Blitz. I'll explain those more once I have experienced them; no sense talking about something I don't know about."

Aenon frowned at the whole "Level of Freshness" thing. "Why do shop keepers only look at your level? Wouldn't that kind of neuter their businesses?"

"Well, for one they have an image to upkeep and they don't want Inklings who are too "unfresh" wearing the clothes meant for ink battles; non-ink battle clothes can be bought by anyone. Secondly, reaching level 4 isn't very demanding; even if you keep losing, you'll reach it within a day of dedicated turf wars."

"I guess it would be a bad system if it wasn't at least somewhat forgiving. It's more so to look to see if an Inkling at least knows what they're doing in ink battles."

Coral beamed. "You pick up fast. It's almost a shame you're… well, you know." Aenon nodded solemnly at that when the Inkopolis Square monitor suddenly shifted to an Off the Hook announcement. "Wow, can't believe it's already 2pm today. Time flies when you're having fun."

Pearl and Marina went through the introductory segment before Pearl suddenly said, "Let's try a little something new today. I call it "Inkopolis Fashion Focus"!"

The confusion on everyone's face in the Square was mirrored by Marina. "Uh, Pearl… what are you doing? I don't see this anywhere on the script at all!"

"Relax, we're just going to highlight some fresh new styles around Inkopolis." Pearl looked like she was full of confidence.

Marine went from confused to amused in that span of time. "Did you even run this by our producers?"

Aenon was very amused at this point as well. "Talk about going off the rails rather than off the hook."

Coral giggled at that. "From what I hear, Pearl has always been like that. Guess her upbringing didn't stop her from being incredibly outgoing."

"Let's dive into our first feature!" Marina did her record scratch transition and what appeared caused both Aenon and Coral to do a spit-take back into their drink containers: A picture featuring an Octoling male and female. "All of the cool squidkids seem to be sporting these weird hairstyles lately."

Marine suddenly started acting very awkward. "Oh… um… yeah, squidkids…"

Aenon shook his head. "Poor Marina. Aware of the truth and became awkward on camera because of it."

Coral looked baffled. "I thought they wouldn't be noticed all that much. Was there enough of an influx for Inklings to take notice?"

Pearl pressed on in spite of Marina. "Pretty sure its only a matter of time before it becomes a full-on fad. Though I get the feeling I've seen these hairstyles before…"

Marina, clearly wanting to shift the subject, quickly said, "Alright Pearl, I'm getting word that we are out of time for this segment."

"Ugh, fine! Be sure to tune in for more Inkopolis Fashion focus."

"And when exactly is it going to be next time?"

"Eh… pretty sure we peaked on that one, so probably never!" That got a facepalm out of Marina right before a transition into the stages.

Coral shook her head. "Hopefully us saving more of them doesn't reveal their identities too prematurely. Though if that happens, Marina's status as an idol can help their case." Aenon nodded as Off the Hook went over the stages currently in rotation. Now that he was more informed of how ink battles worked, the rotations made sense.

When the duo got to the League rotations, they first showed an area called The Reef, which looked similar to one of the Octarian kettles, before ending off on Shellendorf Institute. "I heard they have human bones here!"

"I wish humans were real." That one comment from Marina amused Aenon so much that he tried, and failed, to contain his laughter. Coral was initially confused, but as she looked between the screen and him, it clicked why he was laughing and quickly joined in, much to the confusion of a few nearby Inklings. In the distance; Judd, Lil'Judd, and Marie were infinitely amused as well.

Off the Hook did a quick blurb about a company called Grizzco Industries before signing off while Aenon and Coral caught their breath. "Okay, that's just pure irony right there."

"No kidding. Anyways, did you want to spectate a few more turf war matches today or- "

"Coral!" Coral jumped at a female Inkling suddenly calling her name before suddenly being hugged from behind. "There you are! I was wondering where you've been."

"O-Opal! You scared me!" Coral took a second to catch her breath again before looking at Opal, who released her from the hug. "You always have this bad habit of sneaking up on me!"

Opal was a similar size to Coral but had pink hair and wore Pilot Goggles, a Green Cardigan, and a pair of N-Pacer Ag's. "Keeps you on your toes! Anyways, where have you been? I haven't seen you play turf wars and we haven't done any matches together in a while." She looks across the table at Aenon and suddenly had a coy smile. "Or... do I happen to know who's sitting at the table with you?"

Before Aenon could respond, Coral quickly said, "If you know that this is my uncle Vamp from the Calamari County, then yes."

Opal now had a flat look on her face. "That's boring. Here I thought you had a Colossal Squid boyfriend or something that was eating up your spare time."

"He's a Colossal Squid, but we're related so no dice." Coral sighed as she pats her friend on the arm. "Sorry I haven't been hanging out with you or Toda lately, but there's something in my personal life that has been requiring my full attention. I hate to say it, but it's something you can't help me with, but I'll be sure to let you two know if it's been resolved."

Opal smiled at that. "I never doubted you, Coral. I was just worried you forgot about us is all."

"I understand. How about, to make it up to you, we play some turf wars together today. Vamp didn't bring any of his ink battling gear, so he's just going to spectate."

Opal was suddenly beside Aenon and pats his arm. "Sorry to hear that. However, I think you'll find spectating just as fun!"

Aenon nodded as he made his voice sound a bit deeper. "Thank you for being such a good friend to my niece. I'm sure you two will have some great battles."

"Then let's go!" Coral found herself getting dragged to the Inkopolis tower. She shot a pleading look at Aenon, who merely shook his head in amusement as he followed.

 _She has an interesting friend. At least she isn't by herself here in the city, though I wonder about the rest of her family. Does she stay in contact with them?"_

The two friends had played two matches before they were joined by another girl, presumably Toda who had green hair. They played turf wars all the way till 10pm, when the tower closed down for the day. During that time, Coral had gotten all the way to level 12 from level 8, finally allowing her to access ranked battles. The entire time she played, she mostly stuck with her blaster, though she did dabble a little bit with the splat dualies.

When all four of them left the tower due to closure, Coral's friends bid her goodnight and left the Square. Coral yawned after that. "I'm sorry to say this, Aenon, but you're going to have to go back to Neptune on your own tonight. All those turf war matches have left me beat for tonight and I want to go to bed."

"No worries. If anything, this will help you prepare for anything thrown at you at… you-know-where. Besides, you looked like you were having fun and that's all that matters. Just remind me to never cross you while you're using a blaster; you're a monster with that thing."


	12. Chapter 11

A/N: For those of you who were interested in the romance tag of this story, I regret to inform you that the "romance" part of my story won't come into play until much later down the line. As such, I've removed the romance tag until such time as we reach that part of the story.

I apologize for the misleading tag, it was not my intent to deceive.

* * *

Not much went on in the submarine the next morning outside of Aquarius warning Aenon that the energy charge that all the zapfish gave during Neptune's upgrading has been completely spent and that they were running on auxiliary power once again. While the tuna steak was sealed air-tight and frozen, the A.I. estimated that it all will expire within the next few days. Aenon was disappointed, but decided not to bemoan it; he had bigger problems to take care of in the present time.

After a quick breakfast for both him and the two zapfish, the trio flew back to Octo Canyon where Marie was up and already trying to find more information. "Marie, you're up sooner than usual today. Something wrong?"

Marie sighed as she put down her own headset. "Ever since we got that transmission after Octostomp was defeated, I've had a nagging feeling in the back of my head that I should know who that is. It's definitely not Octavio, since that voice wasn't too deep, yet… somehow…"

Aenon sighed. "Honestly, Aquarius and I decided to stop questioning things too deeply, since all it will do is deepen the confusion. The way I see it, it'll be easier to capture Octavio and get him to spill the beans about what he's been up to."

"I understand, but I don't want to push you or Agent 4 too much in trying to get this sorted. I get that time is precious, but haste may ruin any chance of this war staying away from Inkopolis." Marie sighed as she fiddled with her computer. "It doesn't help that Slimeskin Garrison has a bunch of scan-shielded kettles like Beaker's Depot."

"Then let's deal with at least one of the kettles not shielded to start things off today." Coral had only just arrived, but she heard enough of the conversation to know what they were talking about. "Once we get things going, I'm sure we can get good momentum built up to plow through these kettles in record time. I for one am more determined than ever to finish this war."

Aenon chuckled. "I guess all those turf wars you did last night, as well as reaching the level required for ranked battles, only served to stoke your fire." Coral nodded while Marie had a slightly shocked look. She didn't realize that the Inkling that she recruited was not high leveled at all in Ink battles. When she recalls how Coral has been handling herself in Octo Canyon, she could have fooled the squid sister.

"If you guys plan on knocking out an unshielded kettle first thing, then it will be a good time to introduce a new weapon to test." Sheldon chimed in with a cheery demeanor. "I can feel safe getting Agent 4 to get battle data for weapons I've yet to deploy previously in unshielded kettles."

Coral nodded and super jumped to Beaker's Depot to access the jump pad that leads to Slimeskin Garrison. Aenon decided to follow her in Neptune in the event that she goes into a kettle dangerous to her after being done with the first one; better to be ready on hand and not be needed after all.

Sheldon directed Coral to a specific kettle and when she went inside, the drone that carries the hero weapons to her arrived as well. She opened up the suitcase and froze with sheer excitement when she beheld what she saw.

"Boom! Bam! It's the crowd-pleasing face popper…the Hero Blaster! Even enemies behind walls aren't safe from… Agent 4, are you okay?"

Coral had developed a very wide open-mouth smile during Sheldon's attempt to explain the hero blaster to her. Aenon managed to bring the feed from her headset onto Neptune's system and snorted at the image. "Uh… Sheldon, did you intend on unleashing Armageddon on the Octarians?"

"Uh, not intentionally. Why, does Agent 4 love blasters?"

"Love them? Judging by her performance with one yesterday, she's an absolute monster with one." Aenon shook his head with amusement. "Methinks the Octarians should just give us the zapfish now."

Coral started laughing quietly. "Ooh with this thing, I'm going to have so. Much. _Fun._ " Picking it up, she immediately set out, blasting obstacles and Octarians out of her way with well-aimed blaster shots.

All of her enthusiasm quickly melted away when she found out just how tricky the kettle was, even with a blaster. In fact, screwing up getting the sunken scroll so many times got her to the point where she questioned just how much she really knew about the weapon, though Sheldon and Marie were quick to reassure her that the usage of the blaster required here didn't have much base to stand on in actual ink battles.

When dealing with enemies, especially shielded ones, she encountered no problems as she has the range and positioning of her blaster blasts down to a T. Outside of time spent trying to solve the puzzles of the kettle, identified as "The Experimentorium", she got to the zapfish decently quickly.

Sheldon hummed a bit as Coral exited the kettle. "Did you want to knock out the other unshielded kettle now, or save that for when you need a breather?"

Coral thought about before shaking her head. "I think we should start on the shielded ones now. The sooner we knock those ones out, the better. It's just a matter of finding them now. Besides, Agent 5 will help me find kettles, so we'll have them all located in record time." Aenon simply hummed in agreement with that.

While the duo explored Slimeskin Garrison, Aenon noted a rather large blast door that had 5 lights with one of them turned off. "I think I found a kettle that's, once again, locked behind getting every other zapfish besides the boss kettle zapfish."

Marie groaned at that. "Again? I swear if that was another trap meant for us that Perch sprung on herself again…"

Coral shook her head. "Doesn't matter in the long run. We need to save all of the zapfish anyways, so there's no real point in getting worked up over being denied one before getting the others."

"Speaking of the others, I found one that's emitting signals very similar to the kettles that we keep finding Perch in." Aenon was hovering over a kettle he revealed with his inkzooka. "If this is another place where friendly Octolings are, then there's no time like the present."

Coral nodded at that, super jumped to the kettle, and kept her hero blaster equipped when Sheldon told her she can pick what weapon to use. When she touched down on the respawn point, she noted her orange ink color and the fact that they were in what appeared to be a simulation of Moray Towers.

"Who is this? Identify yourself and how you got this channel!"

Coral jumped when a rather gruff male suddenly started speaking to her. Hoping it was one of the friendly Octolings under Perch's command she responds, "I am Agent 4 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon."

That was apparently all of the confirmation the Octoling needed. "Apologies for the rude welcome, Agent 4, I was not expecting you so soon. Commander Perch mentioned you when she contacted us a little while ago and your assistance will be greatly valued."

Everyone on Coral's side of the communication was very confused. "Is she not with you?"

The Octoling sighed. "I was hoping you knew where she was. We lost contact with her when she had an unexpected encounter with hostiles and haven't heard from her since. As much as I hope that her comm-device is simply broken, my cynical side says that she's in very hot water right now."

Marie was very disturbed by that revelation. "We also haven't heard from her ever since she went back into Beaker's Depot to see if there were any Octolings who were unwilling to fight for Octavio."

"That doesn't inspire confidence in me, but all we can do for now is forge forward. In the meantime, I'm Lieutenant Commander Trigger and I've been leading the Octoling rebels in Slimeskin Garrison in place of Commander Perch."

Marie hummed in confirmation. "Give us the sitrep, Lieutenant Commander. The more we know of your current situation, the better able we can aid you and yours."

"Currently, the rebels and I in this kettle have managed to entrench ourselves on one of the towers. Unfortunately, we did so on the wrong tower." Coral looked across the stage and saw Trigger's position on the other tower. "Thankfully, we disabled the enemy respawner and are preventing any reinforcements from coming in on this side.

"Unfortunately, the enemy has been using high-tide ink to dangerous effectiveness. While Perch's counsel allowed us to cut casualties down, the number of injured we have that are unable to heal accounts for 75% of our numbers. Without backup, we might not last much longer."

Marie let out a sour sigh. "High-tide ink again… I was hoping it would just be a thing with Beaker's Depot, but it seems they're going all-in with outfitting their solders with high-tide ink weapons."

"Hang on, there's something I want to know quickly." Aenon suddenly cut in. "Trigger, you mentioned that you disabled the enemy respawner and that got me wondering about one thing in the cultures of Inklings and Octarians. Does "splatting" someone mean the same thing as "killing" someone?"

Marie was about to answer nonchalantly when she realized why Aenon asked: Coral had been standing in place with a slightly horrified look on her face. The moment Trigger mentioned the disabled respawner, she realized that all of the Octolings she's splatted so far in other kettles more than likely respawned and retreated. Here? They won't be splatted, they'll be _killed_ without a respawner.

Trigger sighed at the question. "You're Agent 5, the human in the New Squidbeak Splatoon correct? I guess it would be understandable that you wouldn't know thus far as, outside of the mindless tentacle troops, you've only really "splatted" enemies. To answer your question: no. If you splat someone, it comes with the implication that they'll come back at a respawner. If no respawner is nearby or activated, then you're no longer splatting them; you're killing them…"

Aenon grimaced at that response. Even though he was expecting that answer, the revelation still made him slightly sick to his stomach and he knew Coral wouldn't take that kind of revelation lightly. "Was there no other way? Do we really have to fight and kill Octolings who might either be in the army to try and make a difference in their life or have no idea what their fighting for?"

"Kid, I hate to say this, but we don't have a choice. We are at war in more ways than one and you know the old proverb of-"

"I get what you're referring to, but does it truly have to be "kill or be killed"? I know you probably think I'm just a dumb human- nay, a dumb kid who never had to directly deal with a war in his life. But if we're given a choice, shouldn't we choose to show mercy to someone who doesn't want to throw their life away?"

Marie knew Aenon had a point. The only reason Coral and herself didn't put too much thought into this kind of subject earlier was because they knew that the Octolings in prior kettles would come back. With their ability to respawn restricted from them, mortality became a very big factor in how they rescue the mini zapfish.

Coral shook her head to get herself out of her horrified trance. "While the rebuttal to that would be that rebel Octolings have lost their lives to the ones under Octavio's command and that it should be an eye for an eye, avoiding more death for Octo-kind should take priority; you guys have enough problems as it is. Besides, I'm willing to bet that there are enemy Octolings who aren't so keen on fighting now that they no longer have a life-line. I don't want to kill anyone unless I have to, so I need to play this carefully in more ways than one."

"And that's why I'm here to help."

Coral almost got scared off the respawn pad when Aenon's voice suddenly spoke up behind her. "Why are you here? The enemy has high-tide ink at their disposal and-"

"You're just as vulnerable to it as I am. I was able to quickly head back to the submarine to restock on medical stimpacks and was able to quickly weld a sturdy handle onto a spare metal plate for a make-shift shield." Aenon rattled the silver plate shield in front of him, even though it was kind of heavy for him. "For this kettle, I'm not going in with a weapon; being able to defend non-violently ourselves as we approach the mini zapfish will probably be what you want anyways."

Coral looked at him for a few seconds before giving a relieved laugh. "I guess so. Besides, IF a show of force is needed, I can use my blaster to scare or damage the enemy if they're being difficult."

Sheldon hummed in confirmation. "As much as I love my weaponry, I'm not too keen on killing or inventing tools of _murder_ , only tools for friendly and harmless-in-the-long-term splatting."

Trigger sighed as he figured what the duo was going to do. "You kids are crazy, but I suppose you have to be to get this far. I'll keep my troops entrenched at our current position until you've either rescued the last mini zapfish of this kettle, or we have confirmed you've… well, perished from this fool's errand."

Coral huffed. "Thanks for the vote of confidence. I feel like you should be more receptive to this because we're sparing your own kind from death, but I guess you're just too hardened."

Further down the tower, there was an Octoling female who wasn't overly happy with the situation she's currently in. When she joined the Octarian army with her twin sister, she wanted to help get revenge on Inkling society for keeping their race underground, to find where their father went, and find a better life for her family. But ever since she joined, she's been fighting her own kind in numerous places and not the Inklings.

This mission was no different for her: her commanding officer ordered both her and her twin to help guard the mini zapfish of this kettle from "the Inkling menace and from rebel scum".

What's starting to push her over the edge was when her twin was stationed closer to where the rebel forces were entrenched and the fact that they were no longer able to respawn. Not only has she not seen a single Inkling since joining despite hearing of a single Inkling and her rebel Octoling allies taking back zapfish, but she was constantly worried about her twin sister to the point that she's finding it difficult to focus on her job.

As she was looking at the opposite tower, she heard a small clang from the top of the tower she was on, scaring her greatly. She had also heard reports of a mechanical suit or beast that was tearing through their defenses like nothing and the thought of that same entity invading the kettle she was in made her terrified.

With shaky hands, she readied her octo shot in case the clang meant that an enemy had come in. She refused a high-tide weapon on the grounds that she didn't feel comfortable with one, but she was starting to regret not picking one up. Her shaky hands only grew worse when she saw two figures coming down the tower ramp towards her: a smaller one with a blaster and a larger one with a solid piece of metal. _No… please, I don't want to die… not here…_

Trying to steady herself and calm her nerves, she hides behind a nearby container and waited for the duo to get closer.

Coral and Aenon decided to knock out the mini zapfish closest to their starting point first and work their way towards the rebel entrenchment: Trigger warned them of the Octo-snipers that kept a watch over the area. "Weird, I could have sworn I saw someone or something here earlier."

"Maybe you were seeing things? I'd imagine their forces are more concentrated on the other tower since that's where the resistance currently is. I doubt they planned for any reinforcements to come in from behind."

They were suddenly jumped by an Octoling female who open-fired on them… and missed most of her shots on her targets even though Aenon had managed to raise his shield in a panic. Upon seeing that she was using regular ink and was firing with here eyes seemingly closed, the human decided that the shield was not needed, nor was any violent measures. Motioning Coral to stay back, he lowered the shield and approached the Octoling.

When she opened her eyes and saw him approaching, the Octoling let out a frightened cry and, with her eyes wide open with terror now, unloaded the rest of her ink tank on him. Despite seeing that he was completely unaffected by her ink, she kept holding her trigger even though she had run out of ink and forgot to refill.

Aenon sighed as he used his hand to lower her weapon. "Please don't make this anymore difficult than it has to be. We don't want this anymore than you do." The Octoling looked at him in surprise at the softness in his voice. "We don't want to mean harm to you. All we want is to end this pointless suffering."

The Octoling looked at his partner, who she saw was an Inkling but had no malice in her eyes, only worry and sorrow. All of the things she was told about Inklings being mindless and violent creatures during her time in training was already falling apart around her. Seeing that both of her "enemies" fully willing to show her mercy… everything began falling apart in her head.

After a little while, she started crying on the spot while dropping her weapon. Coral gave her a hug to comfort her as Aenon patted her on the head. This Octoling gave them the feeling that even if their respawner was working, she still wouldn't be as willing to fight as the others in the past were. Coral noted that she sounded much younger and inexperienced as well; not only did the rebel Octolings have young conscripts, but the enemy army was beginning to have young Octolings as well.

After the Octoling recovered from her crying fit, she choked out a small laugh. "All I've know of Inklings was that you were violent. Were… were my superiors wrong?"

Coral nodded. "Very much so. In fact, you can try and find a new life in Inkopolis if you so wished without needing to take it over with force. Many other Octolings have already moved there."

"T-thank you… thank you so much for… for this. It's just that… my twin sister is on the other tower. Please… save her as well; I beg of you! I know I shouldn't be asking anything of you but-"

Aenon cut her off. "No buts. With your respawner gone, we wish to get as many of you Octolings out alive as possible. This war should not even exist, yet it does and we mean to end it."

The Octoling decided to wait unarmed at the top of the tower they were currently on in case her twin happens to come her way. Coral and Aenon continued forward and, as they expected, they had mixed results with the other enemy Octolings.

Some, like the first one, gave up without a fuss between having no respawner for them to fall back on and not willing to fight after being shown mercy. Others, presumably more experienced Octolings, put up more of a fight, though the duo were able to convince them to stand down between Aenon's shield and, if an Octoling was being super stubborn, Coral's blaster.

Aenon was thankful that he thought of bringing a shield to help Coral with. Even though high-tide bullets could hurt or kill him like metal bullets can, they're still a liquid that splatters against hard surfaces provided the ink doesn't explode. However, when he blocked an Octosniper shot for Coral, he was almost blown off his feet from how powerful their shots are.

Right before they started moving on the last group of Octolings by the last mini zapfish, the first Octoling they spared rejoined them. "My twin sister is among them like I said earlier. I want to try to convince them to stop this madness myself."

Aenon wasn't too keen on that plan. "Wouldn't they shoot at you thinking you've gone rouge? Especially if there are more experienced Octolings stationed up there who are far more difficult to convince to lay down their arms."

"That's a risk I'm willing to take!" With those words, she starts heading towards the encampment. Coral and Aenon decided to trail her in case she lands in hot water with her own kind. Thankfully, after much convincing from both sisters, the final group of Octolings agreed to lay down their arms and give up the final mini zapfish; with the other seven already reclaimed, there wasn't much point to trying to defend the last one.

When the rebel Octolings were given the all-clear, Trigger was surprised. "Well I'll be, you kids managed to pull it off. I'll admit, The whole shing-ding about Inklings being ruthless has been stuck in my head for a long time, especially after what happened in Octo Valley two years ago, even after I joined commander Perch. Old habits die hard after all…"

Coral let out a happy woomy. "Regardless, I'm glad we managed to do this with only the death of the mindless Octosnipers. However, this last group would've been hard to convince without the help of a certain pair of twins being stationed here."

"Wait a minute, did you say "twins"?"

Coral and Aenon were surprised by the sudden question. "Uh… yeah, why?"

"One second, I'm coming down there myself."

Trigger cut his communication off and, shortly after, started rushing down the ramp towards the group. The twin Octolings took one look and both gasped in shock. "F-father?"

"I… I can't believe it… my little girls!" Trigger got into a group hug with the two twins. "I'm so sorry, you two. I… I didn't realize how much my absence would affect you after your mother died. To think we could've fought or killed each other…" He slowly started crying from the thought.

"Daddy, it's okay! We're safe and together again, just like mom told us we would be in the end!"

Every single Octoling, both from Octavio's army and rebel army alike, saw what kind of tragedy could have unfolded from this whole scenario, had Agents 4 and 5 not shown up in time or chose not to do things in a more pacifistic way. The true tragedy of a war like this dawned on them all, and they all agreed that fighting each other like this was pointless.

For the first time since Octavio re-launched his plan to invade Inkopolis, there was peace between rebels and the main army.


	13. Chapter 12

A/N: When the story mentions "Skyla's gym," please consider having an extended version of Skyla's Gym from Pokémon Black 2 & White 2 playing to enhance the feel of the story up until it's mentioned to be turned off.

The music for Skyla's gym is copyright Nintendo.

* * *

"Daddy! Why won't you come with us?!"

Back at the cabin, the New Squidbeak Splatoon had just seen off the most recent batch of Octolings who decided to move to Inkopolis to start a new life. However, Trigger had just stated that he was staying behind with the Splatoon and acting as an additional advisor to Agents 4 and 5. It was needless to say that his twin daughters were despondent over this decision.

Trigger sighed as he closed his eyes. "Because I want to fix the mistakes I made here in Octo Canyon. That… and I don't deserve a new life of peace after what I've done in my life. All I wish is for my two sweet daughters to live a happy, healthy life away from this meaningless violence…"

The other daughter shook her head rapidly. "We want you to be happy too, daddy! Don't you remember the promise we made after mom died? We would do our best to be happy as a family, no matter what happened!"

"I know what we promised your mother and each other…" Trigger looked at the trio watching from a distance, who all nodded at him in understanding. "Please allow me this one chance to help out the New Squidbeak Splatoon in some capacity. I will come to you once I feel I've done all that I can to help; hopefully making sure Commander Perch is alright as well."

The twins looked at each other and closed their eyes in contemplation before nodding at their father. "Alright… just don't do anything to endanger yourself… okay?"

Coral smiled. "Don't worry, we'll make sure he stays here and away from the front lines." Trigger gave her a flat look, which only made everyone laugh.

After saying their good byes, the twins finally left for Inkopolis. Trigger turned to the trio and nodded. "Are you still willing to rescue zapfish from a few more kettles today after that kind of experience?"

Aenon nodded. "The sooner we end this mad war, the sooner the Octarians can rebuild their lives."

"I know I've said this before, but you kids really impressed me. That you managed to make even the more stubborn solders, ones who've been around since the first time this happened, lay down their arms is no small feat."

"We did what we had to. There's no sense in death if it can be avoided, especially with your race facing plenty of problems as it is." Aenon thought for a moment. "I've noticed with your daughters that the Octarian military has started conscripting younger Octolings into service."

Trigger let out a sad sigh. "That's a bad sign. It means they are getting desperate in trying to stop you guys from taking back all of the zapfish."

Marie frowned. "Even though they've been sticking zapfish in places that an Inkling like Agent 4 can't access?" When Trigger gave her a confused look she sighed. "You didn't know either I guess. They stuck a zapfish in an underwater aquarium and an underground mine built by humans long ago."

"That… doesn't make much sense. I guess, with Agent 5 by your side, they realized that trying to hide zapfish that way wasn't going to work and got desperate from that."

That sentence disheartened Aenon. "So, if I wasn't here, they wouldn't have brought in your daughters to fight?"

"That's not what I meant. I understand fully that this mission of yours would have stopped cold from that particular zapfish if it weren't for you, Agent 5. If anything, you're helping end this war faster than Agents 2 and 4 could have by themselves."

Coral nodded at that. "No need to feel down about that, Agent 5. Besides, Trigger's daughters were saved, so all's well that ends well."

Aenon silently berated himself for feeling down about something beyond his control and smiled. "Thank you. I suppose we should get a move on if we are to save more Octarians from this war."

"Right you are! Luckily, I had uncovered a kettle right before you mentioned the kettle we went down, so I can just super jump that!" Coral did so after assuring Trigger that he'll be able to help in the same way Marie and Sheldon have.

Aenon barely had enough time to hop into Neptune and fly to Slimeskin Garrison when she entered the kettle, though Sheldon requested that she use the hero splatling for this kettle. When she landed on the respawn point, she noted that she was in what appeared to be a building with what sounded like wind outside. "Huh, did I somehow end up outside again? I can hear the wind, though I'm sure it's nothing to note."

"Wait, you can hear wind in that kettle?" Trigger thought for a moment before his eyes widened in horror. "Agent 4, do NOT step outside when the wind is howling!"

"What? Why do you-" Coral quickly found out why Trigger said that. The moment she stepped outside of the building, the wind started howling an ungodly amount, causing her to get blown away like a piece of paper. She was able to use her splatling to anchor herself to a pole that was in her way, but she was still getting blown away.

"I was afraid of this. I just remembered that we had a giant wind tunnel that we use for testing how aerodynamic our flying vehicles in extreme conditions." Trigger started biting his lip. "Your only hope to not get blown into the rotating fans in the back of the tunnel is to just hang on until the wind dies down!"

"E-easier said… than… done!" Coral was straining her entire body to keep ahold of the splatling that has her anchored to the pole. Unfortunately, her strength gave out and she slipped off the pole.

"CORAL!" When he heard that Coral was in danger of being blown away, Aenon managed to enter the kettle and launched Neptune after her. He was able to latch his grappling hook to a nearby "grapple point" and grabbed Coral right as she lost her grip on her weapon, saving both her and the splatling. "Hang on, I'll reel us back in!"

Once the duo were safely back inside the "building", Coral had to catch her breath. "T-that was t-too close…"

Trigger hummed, the tension of losing Agent 4 to the wind turbines now gone. "I guess that human suit wasn't built with aerodynamics in mind. Even it struggled against the powerful winds of that tunnel."

Aquarius sighed at those words. "The suit was designed with underwater exploration in mind. As such, aerodynamics, while useful even underwater, was not considered since speed wouldn't be a factor in exploring the depths."

Aenon huffed at that, not noticing that Neptune's system started playing a song that was based off "Skyla's Gym." "Then what do we do to progress? I highly doubt the intervals between high wind and low wind speeds are going to be long."

"There will be other buildings along the path that "should" lead to the zapfish stored in this area. My suggestion is to make mad dashes between the buildings and take cover before you get blown away." Trigger thought for a moment before adding, "While there won't be any enemies between buildings, I'm willing to bet that you'll encounter hostiles in each building. As such, how risky do you want to play if you want to avoid as much conflict as possible?"

Coral shot Aenon a concerned look as he shook his head. "I don't fancy getting into skirmishes, but if we have to fight to make progress, then I guess we have no choice. I just pray our only enemies are the mindless troopers and no Octolings."

"I briefly saw the other buildings in the area and they are huge!" Sheldon piped up. "I think it's once again time to have Agent 4 bracer herself on Neptune's shoulder."

Coral looked at her splatling. "I don't have the hero shot, though."

"Don't worry about it. You'll see once you're ready to go."

Aenon kneeled down to let Coral board. After she braced herself like she did in the mines, a bunch of hoses and tubes attached themselves to the splatling. The barrels and all of the barrel clamps suddenly expanded and moved around until it looked like the splatling had twice the number of barrels that the original did. It almost looked kind of comedic.

Despite that, Sheldon sounded proud as he said, "Meet the Inkstorm Splatling, another "Neptune-mode" weapon designed only for use on the mechanical suit. Like its name implies, this weapon basically allows you to aim and shoot an inkstorm with sufficient charge. The longer you charge it, the longer and more powerful your fire will be. Just be wary that a fully charged inkstorm splatling _**will**_ eat through one third of Neptune's tank, so make sure you use your charges well."

Coral looked at the splatling with a mixture of awe and amusement. "Neptune mode weapon, huh? I guess you won't be using, or at least dumbing down, the data you receive from these kinds of weapons."

"Are you kidding? As much fun as it is to develop weapons for Neptune, these are too overpowered for ink battles. Besides, they require so much ink that they'd be nigh impractical to use without Neptune's enlarged ink tank. As such, I try to scale down the data to be more realistic for what I want." Sheldon cleared his throat. "As much as I could ramble on, you guys have a zapfish to save."

Aenon nodded and checked outside. The high-speed winds died down right as he did so, allowing him to suddenly dash outside and fly towards the next building. He realized the low-speed wind duration was barely long enough for him to reach the first building.

Just as Trigger suspected, when they entered the building they were greeted by an entourage of Octarian troops. Coral didn't waste any time in testing the inkstorm splatling out and, was floored by how much damage she was doing over a wide radius, which she can see thanks to the HUD that popped up for her again. Even the shielded troopers were quickly shredded by the splatling, though she noted that she only did a half-charge and Neptune's ink capacity was at 75%.

Aenon noted it as well. "half-charges consume a quarter of a tank? Good thing we can recover ink in-between skirmishes while waiting for the wind, else this kettle would be a lot more painful to trudge through."

Sheldon hummed to himself a bit. "I wonder if we could use some of the sardinium ingots to increase Neptune's ink recovery rate. It would make sections like these, and Neptune-mode weapons in general, less painful to use."

Coral sighed at that. "Guess we should have thought of it sooner. Oh well, no sense in backing out now; we'll just have to deal with low ink if we get too careless."

"Provided you don't get a power-high from using such a powerful weapon." Trigger chuckled after saying that. "With a weapon like that, anybody would have an itchy trigger-finger including myself."

Coral composed herself as Aenon used an opportunity to move to the next building. She remembered her power-high from using the accelerator shot in the mines and knew that running out of ink with the inkstorm splatling would be even more disastrous, especially if Aenon can't fight properly with her mounted-on Neptune's shoulder.

As they building hopped between high-wind intervals, everyone noticed that the enemy formations and types were getting progressively more difficult with each building. In fact, two buildings had the sunken scroll and the sardinium respectively, which required willful activation of an "alarm" and dealing with far tougher opponents than what the building initially had before they could claim their (optional) prize.

There were a few times where Aenon got careless and didn't reach the next building before the wind picked up harshly. Thankfully, he was able to use his grappling hook to anchor Neptune to the last building he traversed and kept duo from being blown too far back, or worse into the rapidly spinning fans in the back. As Aquarius stated after the first blow-back, even Neptune can't handle being chopped up by such large fans.

The final building, which contained the zapfish in the back, contained not one group or formation, but multiple waves of enemies guarding it. Even though the Octo bombers were using high-tide bombs to try and damage Neptune, Aenon knew better than to try and test the armor against suck blast force and opted to either dodge or punt every splat bomb that came his way.

During the 3rd wave, both Agents were horrified to learn that Neptune ran out of ink for the first time. This made Sheldon panic. "Y-you'll just have to dodge until Neptune recovers ink. Unfortunately, due to a programming oversight that I only found recently, you cannot use any ink until you have a full tank if you run dry!"

Marie wasn't very pleased at that. "And you missed that flaw for this long because?"

"I-I didn't think to look over the programming we created for Neptune until recently, as I didn't feel there was a need to."

Aenon sighed as he dodged more bombs and ink fire. "That would be partially my fault too. It could be as simple as a SINGLE line of mistyped code causing this flaw to rear it's ugly head."

Trigger groaned at that. "Programming sounds like unforgiving work when one tiny mistake can ruin an entire program built from the ground up. I almost feel like programming a machine to do a certain job takes more time and effort to do compared to just doing it ourselves."

Aenon grunted, trying to multi-task in dodging and talking. "You could say that, but us humans tended to screw up in situations where using machinery would have prevented similar, if not more disastrous mistakes. We called it "human error"."

Marie snorted at that. "I get the feeling it's the same as "cephalo-error" that us Inklings and Octarians use when we goof something up badly."

"It still scares me how similar our races are even beyond the surface." Aenon noted that Coral was already firing again after Neptune's ink tank had fully recovered. "Good god, thirty seconds to fully refill the tank? Maybe we should get that ink recovery rate upgraded pronto."

"I don't think we have to worry about this place anymore, though." Coral had just finished mopping up the last of wave 3, which resulted in the cage containing the zapfish opening. She quickly noted that the light-bulb prison the zapfish was in wasn't connected to the facility. "Was this zapfish not needed to power this place?"

Trigger thought for a moment before gasping. "I forgot! Octavio's army had managed to, somehow, activate a human powerplant at some point before you guys showed up in Slimeskin Garrison. That might be where the power for the wind tunnel is coming from, rather than the zapfish."

Aenon didn't like the sound of that. "I'm willing to bet that they did so to save the zapfish for powering war machines rather than the kettles. In fact, I'm guessing they hid a zapfish inside the powerplant as well, either to jump-start it or just to keep it safe."

Marie frowned as she fiddled with her equipment. "I'm picking up massive power source readings coming from one of the kettles. I'm also picking up a lot of hostile readings as well; I'd recommend taking out the other unlocked kettle in the area before heading there to see if the enemy density will let up."

"That might be wise. Not only to prevent the powerplant from receiving reinforcements from the other kettle, but also to see if it's merely a case of high enemy traffic in the place at certain times." Trigger hummed to himself before grunting in annoyance. "Curse my memory, I can't remember where the power from that place is headed to."

"We'll deal with that when the time comes." After exiting the still-functioning wind tunnel, Coral dismounted from Neptune and her splatling returned to normal. "Besides, it'll give us a good buffer between uses of Neptune in the event that we have to for the powerplant."

"And a good opportunity to upgrade this thing's ink recovery rate." Aenon grumbled as he stopped the music and flew towards the cabin. "While it sucks to have that flaw of "run out of ink, must recover all of it before you can use more," fixing it feels like it would be a waste of time, considering all of the data I would have to comb through to find the error."

Sheldon sighed. "It just stings that we have to upgrade ink recovery JUST to get around that problem." He noted that Coral was already at the next kettle. "Agent 4, I actually have a new weapon for you to gather data with."

"Gotchya," Coral dove in and, after landing, she received what looked like a folded-up umbrella.

"This is a secret weapon that everyone wants to play with: The Hero Brella! After firing, you can hold the trigger to expand the canopy as a shield. Hold it for long enough and you can launch the shield forward, spreading ink along the way. Master this, and you'll be the master of the saying "A good offence is a great defense.""

Aenon snorted at that as he fiddled with the Ammo Knights Enhancifier. "I could have used that when we were helping out Trigger and the other Octolings. Oh well, my metal shield worked out in the end and I don't know how well the canopy would hold up to high-tide bullets."

Coral went through the level that started off with branching paths. Trigger told her that she would need 2 keys to progress forward and that they were hidden at the end of both paths.

After getting both keys, she got ambushed by an Octoling, though she was able to knock her out instead of killing her; Marie confirmed that there was no respawner nearby for the Octolings, so sparing her life there was a good thing.

The rest of the kettle panned out as normal, outside of another jerkishly hidden sunken scroll that Aenon barely caught sight of when he finished with upgrading Neptune's ink tank. With clever use of her brella shield and her bombs, Coral was able to reach the zapfish in record time.

Marie sighed as Coral exited the kettle. "Take five, Agent 4. As soon as you're rested up, you're taking down that powerplant. I only hope we're not too late in stopping it from powering something devastating."


End file.
